Category: writing tips
-
Friday’s Findings: Balancing Descriptions
Not too much, not too little. Not talking about the ranch seasoning powder I add to my tuna casserole recipe. I’m talking about description in fiction writing. I keep reading over and over: description isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality. Whether it’s describing a character, a room, or a car, one or two descriptors go…
-
Avoid Infodumps: Dole Out Information
As I write my current draft for my WIP called Traption, I am trying to avoid infodumps. One way to avoid heaping a mound of story-stopping background details is to weave the information throughout the story. Use dialogue. Use a short flashback. Use inner monologue. Doling out the information a little here, a little there,…
-
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?
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…
-
Top Rules for Creative Writing
Photo by Anni Roenkae
-
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?
Photo by Anni Roenkae
-
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?
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…
Andrew M. Friday 