This week, the challenge I'm facing is writing short chapters. The last two books I've written have chapters anywhere from 5,000-8,000 words, sometimes longer. My current book is a different series, a different genre and a different length. To make my word count work, I need to have 3,000-3,500 word chapters. Not exactly, but pretty …
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The most important part of a story is the characters, and crafting good characters is an important skill to develop as a writer. Characters are more important than plot. If you immediately disagree, I can tell you this right here is your problem. A character is supposed to drive the story, not the plot. The …
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This week has been another hard week of writing. I sat down to write every day, but the story did not flow. I had trouble writing very much at all on the page. I was excited about the story but not about what I was doing with it. It felt like I was trying to …
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For some reason, I am always tempted to tell myself I'm doing things wrong. When things are hard or don't flow well, my first answer is "what can I be doing better right now? This can't be right." But actually, it can be. The impulse to blame is strong inside of me, but some things …
There is a huge debate among writers about the correct strategy to approach the craft. Is it better to write every day, regardless of how you feel, or is it better to write only when you are struck by creative inspiration? I am firmly in the write every day camp, however, this week reminded me …
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Fear is a real part of my life. A real emotion I feel every day. And with the new year coming up, I've started thinking about the direction I want my life to go and how to get there.
I went to university in Scotland, and over there they do classes differently. Preparedness is valued, and if you aren't prepared, you receive judgmental glares from a disappointed lecturer who then marks down your paper. Uni exhausted me, but I did learn my lesson.
Writing is hard. It's especially hard to write when it's the fifth, or fifteenth, or fifty-sixth day in a row where you wake up and don't do it. How do I convince myself to write so often? Here's what I do.
Sometimes when I'm writing, I notice that I'm saying the same thing over and over. It's not fun to read. Then I feel like a failure and a crappy writer that no one will ever like or want to publish. So I've come up with a simple method to help.
I am not a morning person. Mornings are a nice concept, but I don't have to experience them to know they happen. When I started writing, I realized that mornings were a huge part of my day.
Jules Conrad 