Andrew M. Friday

Category: fiction writing

  • Quense tells how he writes his books and doesn’t apologize for it

    Here is my review of Hank Quense’s Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir as it appears in Goodreads and Amazon: I’ve read many books on writing fiction and after a while I see the same theories and best practices over and over. This is not necessarily a bad thing because a reminder is always helpful. However,…

  • Writer’s Block: Just One Sentence

    I overcome writer’s block by tricking my brain. I tell myself: “All I have to do just write one sentence for today, and that’s it. That’s today’s quota.” I’ll write that one sentence and then I’ll just keep going. I think telling myself one sentence is enough removes the psychological barriers of “I have to…

  • Those Extra Chunks of Time

    Don’t wait for just the big chunks of time to write. Use little chunks of time throughout the day: 15 minute breaks; 20 minutes here; even thinking about your story while you drive home from work counts. Those little chunks of time add up. When the big chunks of time arrive –say a whole Saturday…

  • Whoa, an epiphany in writing dialogue

    In one of my favorite books on graphic design, The Non-Designer’s Design Book, Robin Williams presents the concept of being able to name something so that you can own it. A person may recognize good design in a poster or a brochure, but not be able to know why it’s good design. In her book,…

  • What I’m learning as I write my novel, part 2

    In my previous blog entry, I began listing some things I’m learning as I write my current novel. Here are some more: Let the story unfold like a snowflake. When writing the discovery draft of a novel, I like to use the snowflake method. This is a method created by writer Randy Ingermanson. I mentioned…

  • What I’m learning as I write my novel

    When I say I’ve written six novels, this is what I really mean: I’ve written the rough draft of six novels. Sure I like to say “I’ve written six novels” to try to impress people, but if anyone would read these “novels”, he would read for five minutes, stick out his tongue, squinch up his…

  • Writing Exercise: Describe One Thing Ten Ways

    This writing exercise challenges the writer to describe something ten different ways. I chose Andre, a french bulldog whom I watch when his “mommy” and “daddy” are out-of-town. I have grown quite fond of him and he offers wondrous opportunities for description. Now, for my list, I decided to tackle description using the five senses…