Right now, we’re still in the first blushes of NaNoWriMo. Those who have started are beginning to feel what it is like to write their stories, to write and keep writing, feeling that initial rush of a plot beginning to form (I don’t think that feeling ever goes away). Some, like me, have yet to … More NaNoWriMo: For All Those Who Haven’t Started Yet
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
There are a lot of different kinds of villains or antagonists in fiction – just as many as there are protagonists. While plot and a main character are very important, finding what the main character is working against is equally, if not more, essential to driving a plot forward. Antagonists keep the story going; they … More Writing Villains: Monsters
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
Goals are powerful things. And I believe they are equally powerfully misunderstood. Most of us when we think about a goal associate it with failure, with meeting with supervisors and guidance counselors, of failed weight loss attempts, massive dreams turned gripping defeats. The mere word GOAL is enough to turn the stomach of many people. … More Goals are Powerful Things
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
I’ve had a long few weeks of writing. Working two freelance jobs, relearning how to do math for one of them, blogging every day, and generally working my writerly tail off. Every now and then, I pause in the middle of a particularly difficult sentence, paragraph, article, and with a thin thread of panic, I … More The Mind is Never Empty
We’re narrowing in on the last few days before National Novel Writing Month. We’ve been getting ready – reprioritizing time, deligating as much as we can, clearing out space to allow the giant wonderful mess of November to come in like a bevy of frat boys and take over our houses (and, might I add, … More NaNoWriMo Prep: 5 Rules to Boost Word Count
When undertaking great tasks like writing a novel in a month, it is easy to get lost in the idea of the thing – the idea of what it takes, who we need to be to accomplish our lofty goals. Right now, I am having to remember this daily, as I move into a new … More NaNoWriMo Pep Talk: Come As You Are
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
The official blog of Michelle Tuckett, word ninja. 