Category: reading

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Friday’s Findings: Fandom.com

    Friday’s Findings: Fandom.com

    I’ve been using Fandom.com (formerly known as Wikia.com) to help me in my reading and writing endeavors. Fandom is a wiki hosting service which hosts wikis on entertainment and pop culture, such as books, games, movies, television and more. I find Fandom helpful in my reading in several ways. First, if I’ve been reading a…

  • Friday’s Findings: The StoryGraph

    Friday’s Findings: The StoryGraph

    For years, I’ve used Goodreads and LibraryThing to keep track of my reading. I also use them to see reviews of books, get reading ideas, and promote my own novels. Yesterday, my coworker introduced my to StoryGraph. It’s similar to the other book reading websites, but StoryGraph has an emphasis on statistics. It breaks down…

  • My New DUNE Movie Poster

    My New DUNE Movie Poster

    I can’t help it. It’s one of my favorite novels. And a great movie. And I’m a nerd.

  • Reading Update

    Reading Update

    With all of the crazy in the world these past few years, and now the past few weeks, reading as a way remain calm and escape is more important than ever. Here are some books I’ve read lately and really enjoyed: Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey I read this final installment of this…

  • What I Read in 2021

    What I Read in 2021

    I’m proud of how many books I read this year: 42. Not many by some people’s standards and way more than a lot of people. I read a lot of novellas this year, so that helped me reach my goal of reading at least 40 books. What shouldI have read more of this year? Poetry,…

  • What a Mess!

    What a Mess!

    After thirty days of writing over fifty thousand words, what do I have to show? An incoherent mess of scraps of conversations, descriptions and exposition. It’s a mess. And that’s what makes my 2021 NaNoWriMo a success. The story is there, told all the way through. I just have to rework it and rework it.…

  • NaNo Update

    NaNo Update

    Just a quick update on my NaNoWriMo project. Over the weekend I reached 30k words, which was my goal. I’m pleased with how it’s going, but, of course, NaNo is about just getting it down on paper (or on the computer). Some things going well: I’ve written something for every scene in the story. Sometimes…