Category: fiction writing
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First Weekend of Camp NaNoWriMo
Enjoyed my first full weekend of Camp NaNoWriMo for April 2022. I completed a scene from my novella called Traption. As I mentioned in a recent blog posting, I’m using a writing process I’m calling the “scratchpad” method. I use a single text document–mine happens to be in Google Docs– and will just add on…
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Friday’s Findings: The Scratchpad Method
Today is the first day of Camp NaNoWriMo–it’s my first Camp NaNoWriMo!– and I’m using something called “The Scratchpad Method.” You see, I have a writing situation. Is it a good or bad situation? It’s good in the sense I have an abundance of WIPs to work on. It’s bad in the sense I don’t…
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Still Deciding What To Do for Camp NaNoWriMo
Camp NaNoWriMo starts April 1st and I’m not sure what to do. It’s not a lack of ideas; it’s too many WIPs to choose from. I have a draft for my novella Traption and I was going to edit it. Then I decided to work on a rough draft for my novella Normous. But now…
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Is the level-down revision method helpful?
A couple years ago, I took an online course called Write a Bestselling Novel in 15 Steps by Jessica Brody. It was free through my local public library’s website and in it, Brody talks about her book Save the Cat Writes a Novel. She uses examples and exercises to ensure a vivid understanding for each…
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Friday’s Findings: Fictionary
I bit the bullet and purchased a subscription to Fictionary. Being a word-processing program and outliner for authors, it falls into the same category as Scrivener, but they have some differences. Here’s how I feel about Fictionary: Character tracking: Fictionary has a great feature for keeping track of characters in each scene. Character tracking is…
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What I Read in 2021
I’m proud of how many books I read this year: 42. Not many by some people’s standards and way more than a lot of people. I read a lot of novellas this year, so that helped me reach my goal of reading at least 40 books. What shouldI have read more of this year? Poetry,…
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What a Mess!
After thirty days of writing over fifty thousand words, what do I have to show? An incoherent mess of scraps of conversations, descriptions and exposition. It’s a mess. And that’s what makes my 2021 NaNoWriMo a success. The story is there, told all the way through. I just have to rework it and rework it.…
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Friday’s Findings: The Story on Two Levels
I believe I’ve quoted this fiction writing axiom before, but Terry Pratchett said, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.” With this year’s NaNoWriMo, I’m finding out how true this is. I’m feeling exactly what he was talking about. I spent September and October prepping my story. I made up characters. I…
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Friday’s Findings: Writers Retreat
This weekend, I’m having a writer’s retreat. I’m the only one attending. Two of my friends are going on their 2nd honeymoon and asked me if I’d like to watch their cat and their awesome house. How is it awesome? First of all, it’s gorgeous. Secondly, it’s in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest…
Andrew M. Friday 