Category: my life
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Should You Bundle Your Books?
For the past few months, I had been playing with the idea of bundling the books in my Consortium series I’ve written so far. I had already bought a pre-made cover from bookcoverzone.com, so I thought ‘what the heck.’ It’s gone more smoothly than I thought possible. One thing I’ve done is put the book…
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My 50k Novel in 30 Days: Final Daze
During my last three days of doing this unofficial NaNoWriMo, I wondered about my writing craft process for the future… Day 28 It is a sad day for me. The website for NaNoWriMo has vanished. Ironic it happened while I’m in the last week of one of the best 50k words in 30 days I’ve ever done.…
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Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 1
I’ve decided to prove that I can write fifty thousand words in thirty days on my own — without anyone or any organization giving me a deadline. Here are the parameters I set for myself: Here is how my first week went: Day 1: It’s a Thursday and in the middle of the work week.…
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Friday’s Findings: My First 50K Novel
On Friday, October 31, 2008, I woke up to the radio talking about something called National Novel Writing Month. Write fifty thousand words by the end of November? Impossible! But I wanted to try it because I’m crazy. So, after work that Friday, I checked out the NaNoWriMo website. I spent my time making a…
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Friday’s Findings: Write in Chunks. Small Chunks.
Look for those ten-minute gifts of time. Although 10,000 is not a magic number, that’s the number of steps I try to get every day. I used to look for that big chunk of time to get to that mystical numeral. But some days, that just wasn’t possible. By accident, I discovered I can get…
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Friday’s Findings: My Autodidactic University
Let’s not talk about how long ago I graduated from university. The world is a different place. I studied journalism and then went to art school. I’m embarrassed to say it took me longer than it should to realize this: graduating from high school or college is just the beginning. School’s purpose is to teach us…
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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: But before writing the rough draft of a scene, I have practiced a step I got from a thin, little book called Every Writer Has a Thousand Faces by poet…
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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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Fridays Findings: My Top Five Reads This Year
Wow. I’ve read so many great books this year. It was hard willowing my top five list down, but here they are. I’ve reprinted my original reviews here. In no particular order, I present my top five favorite reads for 2024: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin literary fiction, friendship fiction Most of us…
Andrew M. Friday 