Category: fiction writing
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Friday’s Findings: Character Goals
I’ve been going over my manuscript for my novella and I am making sure all my major characters have goals: goals for the whole story and goals for each scene they are in. A character’s goals can be internal (find self-worth) or external (make a million dollars). Their goals can change throughout the story. Even…
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Do I Really Need to “Practice” Writing?
If I could talk with my younger self — who wanted to be a writer — I would tell him to practice writing. My younger self would not have known what that would entail. So, I would say to him the following . . . But first, let’s talk about why writing practice is essential. What does a budding…
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Friday’s Findings: Hands Off Read Through
This week I have been doing a “hands off read through” of my novella Traption. No reworking scenes, no editing paragraphs, no tweaking words; just reading through this draft I completed during Camp NaNoWriMo in April. Hands off the words. Some of the things I’m looking for: Does my story have a solid structure? Does…
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Camp NaNoWriMo Update #5
Camp NaNoWriMo for April 2022 is over. Did I reach my goals? Yes and no. No, I did not reach my word goal of 15,000 words. I got to 11,600 words. And I’m happy with that. I had a blast discovering more about my story (a better goal than word count). I learned more about…
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Friday’s Findings: How Exactly Do the Atomic Habits Help Writers?
In my previous post, I mentioned I found James Clear’s book Atomic Habits to be helpful for writers. I didn’t, however, mention specifically how I found it helpful. While I could probably list a dozen ways the book provided ways to incorporate the writing discipline into my life, I’m just going to list four for…
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Camp NanoWriMo Update #4
I passed up 10,000 words. Only 5,000 to go. I’m fleshing out the last ten or so scenes of my WIP I did for my 2019 NaNoWriMo project by just writing dialogue. I’m using what I call “layering” in the narrative elements: Dialogue Action Reaction/Internal Thought Emotions/voice cues, facial expressions, body language, visceral reactions Senses/Description…
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Camp NaNoWriMo Update #3
I’m wearing my Duncan Idaho hoodie to keep me inspired while I write.:) Well I gave in and lowered my Camp NaNoWriMo goal from 25,000 words to 15,000 words. Why did I do that? I’ve decided to enjoy my weekend writing as well as doing other things—like watching the Batman on HBO Max instead of…
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Camp NaNoWriMo Update #2
So I’m at 8,300 words so far. I have a week to reach my goal of 25,000. But to be honest, my goals can’t be measured in words. My first goal–to complete a draft of my novella Traption–has been accomplished. My second goal–to finish the last several chapters of my novel, Oblivion’s Hope–is well on…
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Friday’s Findings: Fandom.com
I’ve been using Fandom.com (formerly known as Wikia.com) to help me in my reading and writing endeavors. Fandom is a wiki hosting service which hosts wikis on entertainment and pop culture, such as books, games, movies, television and more. I find Fandom helpful in my reading in several ways. First, if I’ve been reading a…
Andrew M. Friday 