Category: novel planning
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Friday’s Findings: Keeping Tabs
How to use tabs in Google.Docs for writers I use Google. Docs for my novel WIPs (Work in Progress) and recently I noticed a new feature on the side of the screen. Tabs. “What are tabs?” Well, I looked it up and found that these tabs can be a great help for organizing a novel.…
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Friday’s Findings: Getting Through Storytelling Problems
“Often I’ve found that the storytelling problems that have been the hardest are the ones that I’ve taught myself the most by trying to get through them…” —Charles Yu Photo by Jan van der Wolf: https://www.pexels.com/photo/abstract-blue-stained-glass-window-panels-30634846/
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James Scott Bell on Writing: The Best Writing Advice I Know
I’ve been going back and looking at my blog entries from years ago, and I kept coming across advice from author James Scott Bell. I quote him a lot. Two books on writing craft I highly recommend are: He has more writing craft books on Amazon, and I just realized, “I need to read these.”…
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Friday’s Findings: Goals or Systems?
I’ll be honest with you. I did not achieve my writing goals this year. I have no one to blame but myself. Being the end of the year, I thought about how I could do better in the year to come. So, I consulted with my friend, a book called The Atomic Habits. I’ve discussed The Atomic…
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Warning: No Info Dumping, Part 2
In my last blog entry, I talked about the dos and don’ts of info-dumping. Now, I’d like to offer some case studies of info-dumping in action. While these may exaggerate info-dumps in action, they can still cause the writer to ask herself, ‘Have I done this?’ Info-dumps mostly pop up in these areas of description…
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Warning: No Info Dumping, Part 1
Let’s talk about some do’s anLet’s talk about some do’s and don’t’s of info-dumping. I try to find ways to include how things work in my sci-fi and fantasy stories, but I’m not always sure I avoid info-dumping. I try to. But it’s an easy trap to fall into, especially as a speculative fiction writer.…
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Friday’s Findings: Will I do NaNoWriMo This Year?
That photo of the guy contemplating NaNoWriMo may be a bit melodramatic, but it’s a feeling many of us can relate to. Since 2008, NaNoWriMo has been a journey of self-discovery for me. It’s shown me the strength I possess as a writer, pushing my brain, body, and sanity to the limit. It’s proven that…
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Friday’s Findings: Bullet Point Outline – Do you do it?
Want to write a rough draft of a scene like a champ? For a while now I’ve been trying this method using bullet points. It’s not my invention, but it makes sense to me. Here’s the short version: This method is pretty simple. And it actually speeds up the writing process because it puts me…
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Friday’s Findings: The Cat and the Snowflake
In my last post, I discussed using the Snowflake Method simultaneously with the Save the Cat beats to develop a story and end up with a first draft. I expanded this idea with an Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded. Or if you prefer, right click on the graphic below to expand it. Once the image…
Andrew M. Friday 