Secrets of a Sane Writer
a humorous mini course written as if you’re a new member to a sorta-secret society of writers … More Secrets of a Sane Writer
NaNoWriMo Tips
a humorous mini course written as if you’re a new member to a sorta-secret society of writers … More Secrets of a Sane Writer
Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo. Are you ready? Are you writing? Do you have an outline, an idea, a plan of any kind? No matter what you answer, mine is: Good. You’re already ready to start. I want to reassure you here and now that you have a story in you, you have … More Welcome to Your Punk Rock NaNoWriMo
Don’t let NaNoWriMo throw you out of your routine for a whole month. Don’t let it get to you. Keep doing your daily routine and the things that refresh you. … More Deep Breath in, Deep breath out. It’s NaNoWriMo
I was doing some thinking for all of you about NaNo milestones using the 7 point plot structure. My idea is to give you dates and word counts that you need to hit on those dates. Of course this would be a rough guide more than a rule … More NaNoWriMo & the 7 Point Plot Structure
We’re in the final stretch of the NaNoWriMo marathon – day 23. Whether we started well or poorly, on time or late, with a well defined idea or not, we’ve been living in this reality of writing a novel in a month for 23 days now, and there is a mere 7 left. If we we’re … More NaNoWriMo: The Inevitable Writing Stall
What with NaNoWriMo well under way, we must ask ourselves: Are we actually writing? Here is a handy list to double check if you are, in fact, writing. Things that are not actually writing: Looking for that tab you had open as reference material for a blog entry Outlining Complaining about not writing Practicing your … More Are You Actually Writing?
With NaNoWriMo in full swing, the O-word is being flung about a lot, and I need to get this off my chest. I’m resurrecting an old post because it is every bit as true today as it was 3 years and 6 novels ago. I am not a fan of outlining. In fact, it takes … More Reasons I Hate Outlines With A Firey Passion
So far, I’ve talked about antagonists and monsters and the differences between them, but merely mentioning these two aspects of the villain spectrum leaves a hole in the middle – one that begs to be filled by some of the best villains in fiction. Disney’s old Maleficent, The Joker, Patrick Bateman, Lestat, pretty much any … More Writing Villains: The Hybrid
So you want to do NaNoWriMo, but you’re not really good at this plot thing. Maybe you’ve written short stories but not a novel, maybe you’ve always wanted to write a novel, but you don’t have any idea of how to make a plot. Maybe you’ve written or are writing your Good Novel Idea, and … More NaNoWriMo Prep: Creating A Plot in 4 Easy Steps
The following is an excerpt from a post I wrote back in May, 2013: Developing Characters Part One: Getting to know you Our characters are people – people we’re giving free rent to in our heads, sometimes for years. And they ought to be worth that time to create, to find the right one for the … More NaNoWriMo Prep: Creating Characters Worth Writing
Concerning History in the Atlantic World, 1680-1740
The long haul of the spectrum
one woman's thoughts about life on the spectrum
Japanese pop culture through a feminist lens