Category: novel planning
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How I got to my rough draft
Now I’m getting to the fun part! Sorry I haven’t published in a while. I have a good excuse: I finished the draft of the novel I started for 2018’s National Novel Writing Month. I’m calling it The Sentient and it falls under the genre of science fiction, more specifically, space opera. One thing I’ve…
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Mucking around in the rough draft of your NaNoWriMo creation
For NaNoWriMo, here are some things I’m leaving in as I write: Before November, I’ve already written a one or two sentence summary of each scene. For NaNoWriMo, I write a “scribble version” of the scene. This is a more developed summary containing key phrases, important dialogue, cues when to describe this or that, etc.…
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Character Creations: Laying the Foundation
I am having a blast creating characters for my NaNoWriMo project this year. I used some tools I haven’t applied in the past and I wanted to tell you about them. But first, a caveat: this is just for the beginning of character development. I believe in just laying a foundation for a character before…
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The Non-Rules of NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) whips aspiring writers up to writing a 50,000 word draft of a novel in the month of November. I’ve been doing it off and on for ten years and I have about a fifty-percent success rate. By success, I mean I finish 50,000 words by November’s end. I can tell…
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Tools I’m Using for NaNoWriMo
I haven’t done National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in four years. I got busy with other projects, but this year I’m in a position to take a break and enjoy the spontaneity of starting a fiction novel from scratch. It’s an opportunity to rediscover the joy of creating something with abandon. If you haven’t done…
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NaNoWriMo on the Horizon …
A warning: I’m going to vent a little in the first half of this blog posting, but I’m offering up some NaNoWriMo advice in the second half. First, I want to mention something I’ve noticed about haters of NaNoWriMo. They just don’t get it. NaNoWriMo haters assume it’s about getting published. “Most NaNoWriMo participants never…
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Friday’s Findings: 09.07.18
Here are some articles on writing I’ve read lately: How to Write a Fight Scene How to Choose Setting with a Purpose 6 Book Publicity Ideas for Today’s Author Writing While Uninspired 10 Ways To Get Reviews For Your Book
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Friday’s Findings: 07.13.18
Here are some articles on writing I’ve read lately: How to Build Your Sci-Fi World What to Do When You Don’t Feel Like Writing 6 Ways to Double Your Writing Speed Using the Ten Key Scene Structure to Frame Up Your Novel Why You Need Beta Readers
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Friday’s Findings: 07.06.18
Here are some articles on writing I’ve read lately: Making Time to Write – Breaking Bad Habits Novel Writing : 3 Ways to Find Novel-Worthy Ideas Signpost Scenes – Trouble Brewing Writing Science Fiction: How to Approach Exposition in Sci-Fi Novels How Much Do You Need to Describe Your Characters?