Category: my novel’s progress
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Friday’s Findings: Create a Scene Palette
Most writers want their scenes to flow effortlessly on the page, but few scenes actually begin that way. Before the smooth prose and clean structure comes something messier, more playful, and far more effective: scene brainstorming.
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What Does NaNoWriMo Look Like Now?
Never fear, the spirit of NaNoWriMo lives on, even if the website is gone. The challenge is to now find your own community to write with, whether that is online or in-person. And of course, you can write by yourself. Whatever your goals have been for the November challenge of writing 50k words, you have…
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Friday’s Findings: Keeping a Writing Journal
I work as a technical editor for an airline. A year and a half ago, my department moved into the gigantic new hangar the airline built. While I love the new building, I never thought it would help me in my writing. But it does. It just so happens the science fiction novella I’m working…
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Armchair Art Share
I have loved art since I was a kid; I love to make it, love at it, and talk about it. I have also been studying art history on the side – for fun – and I’ve discovered art reflects humanity at all points in history. Check out my YouTube channel Armchair Art Share and…
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Is It Preptober?
Next month will be the first November in decades that the official NaNoWriMo website will not exist. Does this mean no National Novel Writing Month? Will there be a NaNoWriMo community? Should I do NaNoWriMo? I can only speak for myself, but I plan to do NaNoWriMo. Which means this is Preptober. Preptober: It’s a…
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Friday’s Findings: Ask Why
Why Writers Should Ask “Why” Before Writing a Novel Before a writer sketches an outline, builds a character profile, or writes the first sentence, there’s a question worth pausing to ask: Why am I writing this novel? Most of the time, I write for fun. I never think about the why. But I keep coming…
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Friday’s Findings: Your Novel’s Word Count Breakdown
Have you ever asked yourself, “Is my middle too saggy?” Of course, I’m talking about the first draft of your novel. I have several novels in the first draft stage, and I plan to revise them over the next couple of years, Lord willing. Here’s the thing: before I start rewriting them, I want to…
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Friday’s Findings: Ways to Start a Writing Session
In my last blog posting, I talked about using copy work to get started for a writing session. The concept goes like this: for five minutes, copy word-for-word, a few paragraphs of your favorite author or novel. Then start your actual work-in-progress (WIP). It made me realize copy work is just one way to warm…
