Category: Friday’s Findings
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Friday’s Findings: Write That Rough Draft with Abandon
How to Silence Your Inner Editor and Finish Your Story “I’ll write something and then throw it away,” someone recently confessed to me. “That’s why I never finish anything I start.” My reaction? Sadness. She didn’t want anyone to see her writing. But who said anyone had to see it? And if it was a…
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Friday’s Findings: Creating a scene palette
When creating a scene for the first time, I have a list. And I try to hit as many points on that list as possible: Point-of-view character Establish setting Have a purpose (introduce a character, move the story along, etc.) Create conflict Build suspense The list goes on … But before writing the rough draft…
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The Best Time in History to Self-Publish
“This is the best time in history to self-publish. There’s no longer an old-boy network between you and your readers. If your story is good, it’ll get around. And it costs you nothing to try.” -Andy Weir Friday’s Findings Fiction University: What’s the Best Way to Tell (and Write) a Story? What is a Character…
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Friday’s Findings: Getting Through Storytelling Problems
“Often I’ve found that the storytelling problems that have been the hardest are the ones that I’ve taught myself the most by trying to get through them…” —Charles Yu Photo by Jan van der Wolf: https://www.pexels.com/photo/abstract-blue-stained-glass-window-panels-30634846/
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Friday’s Findings: Discipline Versus Motivation
I usually think of writing as a passive endeavor, but more and more, I’m seeing it as an active fight. This fight has to do with my writing time. I’ve recently come across a few pieces of advice that are all related to fighting for your writing time. Guard your writing time with your life.…
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Friday’s Findings: Five things I’ve learned in five years, part 2
A few weeks ago, I named five things I learned about the writing craft in the last five years, which are things about the actual writing process. As I came up with that list, I serendipitously came up with items that didn’t relate directly to the craft but to the writing life. These would be…
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Friday’s Findings: The Beginning
“Let the writing have its beginning — at the end.” -Edgar Allan Poe Friday’s Findings Scene Outline: How to Write Faster by Developing a List of Scenes How to Write Irresistible Character Relationships A Description Database for Character Relationships Why I Suck at Marketing 9 Ways To Craft The Perfect Opening Line Photo by Balazs…
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Friday’s Findings: Bullet Point Outline – Do you do it?
Want to write a rough draft of a scene like a champ? For a while now I’ve been trying this method using bullet points. It’s not my invention, but it makes sense to me. Here’s the short version: Spend some time thinking about what needs to happen in the scene. As you think, type out…
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Friday’s Findings: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
I just finished Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 10th edition, and here are some takeaways: “Most writing is done between the mind and the hand, not between the hand and the page.” “Keep the journal regularly, at least at first. It doesn’t matter what you write and it doesn’t matter very…
