Andrew M. Friday

Category: my novel’s progress

  • Friday’s Findings: Character Goals

    Friday’s Findings: Character Goals

    I’ve been going over my manuscript for my novella and I am making sure all my major characters have goals: goals for the whole story and goals for each scene they are in. A character’s goals can be internal (find self-worth) or external (make a million dollars). Their goals can change throughout the story. Even…

  • 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…

  • Friday’s Findings: Hands Off Read Through

    Friday’s Findings: Hands Off Read Through

    This week I have been doing a “hands off read through” of my novella Traption. No reworking scenes, no editing paragraphs, no tweaking words; just reading through this draft I completed during Camp NaNoWriMo in April. Hands off the words. Some of the things I’m looking for: Does my story have a solid structure? Does…

  • Do you want to write a narrative?

    Do you want to write a narrative?

    Photo by Anni Roenkae

  • Camp NaNoWriMo Update #5

    Camp NaNoWriMo Update #5

    Camp NaNoWriMo for April 2022 is over. Did I reach my goals? Yes and no. No, I did not reach my word goal of 15,000 words. I got to 11,600 words. And I’m happy with that. I had a blast discovering more about my story (a better goal than word count). I learned more about…

  • Friday’s Findings: How Exactly Do the Atomic Habits Help Writers?

    Friday’s Findings: How Exactly Do the Atomic Habits Help Writers?

    In my previous post, I mentioned I found James Clear’s book Atomic Habits to be helpful for writers. I didn’t, however, mention specifically how I found it helpful. While I could probably list a dozen ways the book provided ways to incorporate the writing discipline into my life, I’m just going to list four for…

  • Is “Atomic Habits” Helpful for Writers?

    Is “Atomic Habits” Helpful for Writers?

    I’ll just go ahead and say it.: Without a doubt, the book Atomic Habits by James Clear can help writers establish more effective writing production. It sounds like I’m hyping the book–I am–but I’ll be the first to say the concepts explored in Atomic Habits won’t work for anyone who is leery of products that…

  • Camp NanoWriMo Update #4

    Camp NanoWriMo Update #4

    I passed up 10,000 words. Only 5,000 to go. I’m fleshing out the last ten or so scenes of my WIP I did for my 2019 NaNoWriMo project by just writing dialogue. I’m using what I call “layering” in the narrative elements: Dialogue Action Reaction/Internal Thought Emotions/voice cues, facial expressions, body language, visceral reactions Senses/Description…

  • Camp NaNoWriMo Update #3

    Camp NaNoWriMo Update #3

    I’m wearing my Duncan Idaho hoodie to keep me inspired while I write.:) Well I gave in and lowered my Camp NaNoWriMo goal from 25,000 words to 15,000 words. Why did I do that? I’ve decided to enjoy my weekend writing as well as doing other things—like watching the Batman on HBO Max instead of…