Category: discovery draft
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Friday’s Findings
Semicolons. I think of them as the yellow on a traffic stoplight. But I admit it. I love using the semicolon. When I write a rough draft, I indulge my semicolon addiction, but when I self-edit, I have to rewrite most of the sentences where I use them. They are like spice; I use them…
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Friday's Findings
I always think of my first draft as a lump of clay I’ve been working on for only a few minutes. It’s wet and soggy and unpainted, but I know it’s unfinished and the best is yet to come. Why Your First Draft Isn’t Crap Stop Killing Your Creative Genius How a Career Can Reveal…
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Infographic Tuesday: Why I’m Not Getting Any Writing Done
It’s not too late to evaluate what goals you have for your writing in 2020. Here’s a humorous infographic from Rick Chillot to help motivate you when your creativity is running dry.
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Shame. Shame.
Game of Throne fans will understand the title of this post. But even if you don’t know the reference, you may understand the feeling of “shame” when you don’t finish National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) with fifty thousand words. And I say, “It’s okay. Forget about it.” Some years I “win” NaNoWriMo, some years I…
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One Solution for Your Mid-NaNoWriMo Blues
Is your NaNoWriMo story going nowhere? Here’s one possible solution: Throw in a new character. Don’t have time to create a new character? Here are some quick ways to create a new character for your work-in-progress: Index Card Shuffle: Take 10-15 index cards. On each card, write one character trait (ex. loves cars; wears homemade…
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Sorry, Not Sorry: Doing NaNoWriMo Again
In about a week and a half, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins. I’ve been participating in it since 2008, and I have no doubt it has helped me with my writing craft over the years. It has built my confidence in writing longer projects. Most of all, it’s just plain fun. Last NaNoWriMo, I…
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How I got to my rough draft
Now I’m getting to the fun part! Sorry I haven’t published in a while. I have a good excuse: I finished the draft of the novel I started for 2018’s National Novel Writing Month. I’m calling it The Sentient and it falls under the genre of science fiction, more specifically, space opera. One thing I’ve…
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The Non-Rules of NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) whips aspiring writers up to writing a 50,000 word draft of a novel in the month of November. I’ve been doing it off and on for ten years and I have about a fifty-percent success rate. By success, I mean I finish 50,000 words by November’s end. I can tell…
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Tools I’m Using for NaNoWriMo
I haven’t done National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in four years. I got busy with other projects, but this year I’m in a position to take a break and enjoy the spontaneity of starting a fiction novel from scratch. It’s an opportunity to rediscover the joy of creating something with abandon. If you haven’t done…
Andrew M. Friday 