Category: my life

  • Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #3

    Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #3

    Since last November’s NaNoWriMo, I’ve been using what I call the scratchpad method for my writing process. Ever since, I’ve been honing and improving it for my way of writing. Each month, I start a new document and almost every day, I write whatever for that day. That could be a scene for two for…

  • Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #2

    Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #2

    Word count: 17,000 I recently watched YouTuber Nick Sturgeon’s video Camp NaNoWriMo: Have Fun with Your Writing. One thing he said stuck out to me: “It’s okay. You had a bad day. Today things didn’t go according to plan. But that’s okay. This is just Camp Nanowrimo. It’s a practice. It’s a first attempt at…

  • Friday’s Findings: A Little Off the Top

    Friday’s Findings: A Little Off the Top

    Currently, I am working on my novella, Traption. I practice taking a little off the top at the beginning of each scene. I learned this concept from Jessica Brody’s Writing Mastery Academy course on revision. She recommends going through each scene to determine whether or not the scene begins at the “correct” place. She recommends…

  • Friday’s Findings: A Sci-fi Podcast Recommendation

    Friday’s Findings: A Sci-fi Podcast Recommendation

    I’ve discovered a new podcast and I love it because it reviews science fiction novels. It’s called Hugonauts: The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time. Two guys named Brent and Cody discuss the things they like and didn’t like about well known sci-fi books from over the years. It’s fairly new, so there are enough…

  • Friday’s Findings: Doing a Scene Audit

    Friday’s Findings: Doing a Scene Audit

    I’ve been on vacation this week and while I haven’t gotten as much reading done as I would have liked, I have gotten a LOT done on my novella, Traption. I’ve spent this week going through each scene, one by one and asking myself the following questions: Does this scene have a goal?What are the…

  • Writers: Let’s Take Action

    Writers: Let’s Take Action

    How can you reveal truths through your storytelling? How can you say what needs to be said through your fiction? How can recent events in the news be reflected in your writing?

  • Silas House and Where He Finds Inspiration

    Silas House and Where He Finds Inspiration

    In a post from last week, I discussed weaving in backstory to avoid infodumps. Coincidentally, the day I posted it on this blog, I attended the Speed Art Museum that evening where Kentucky author Silas House spoke on the subject. One thing he said stuck out to me: “I believe there’s a very thing veil…

  • Game of Life

    Game of Life

    Just had to share my new game shelf:

  • Do I Really Need to “Practice” Writing?

    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…