Category: writing tips

  • NaNoWriMo Day 2: My four-steps

    NaNoWriMo Day 2: My four-steps

    Was my first day of NaNoWriMo 2022 was a huge success? I wrote over 1700 words. The story is coming along wonderfully and I’ve come up with some ideas as I’ve composed.  During Preptober, I made a list of phrases describing scenes. I also compiled a list of characters for the two novellas I’m writing…

  • Three Things

    Three Things

    Try the Three Things exercise as part of your morning routine. I had some great successes this weekend: I finished a scene for my novel, Legendaries. I got back into reading: I finished Renegades by Marissa Meyer and started reading the sequel called Archenemies.  I also started reading Legends and Latte by Travis Baldree. This…

  • Infographic: Writing Style

    Infographic: Writing Style

    Writing style is one of those things that is a balance between noticing it and not drawing attention to itself. Below are some suggestions to add your own writing style to your fiction. Download this infographic. Photo by Rogério Martins

  • Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #4

    Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #4

    Working on more than one WIP at once Well, Camp NaNoWriMo will be over Sunday night. So far, I’ve written 25,7000 words out of my 25,000 goal. But one of my less tangible goals was to successfully navigate three WIPs simultaneously. I’ve definitely learned some things about writing three WIP at once. Good things. For…

  • Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #3

    Friday’s Findings: July 2022 Camp NaNoWriMo Update #3

    Since last November’s NaNoWriMo, I’ve been using what I call the scratchpad method for my writing process. Ever since, I’ve been honing and improving it for my way of writing. Each month, I start a new document and almost every day, I write whatever for that day. That could be a scene for two for…

  • Friday’s Findings: Red and Black

    Friday’s Findings: Red and Black

    When I recently reviewed the final draft of my novella, Traption, I used this trick to keep track of where I leave off when I am done for the day. I start with my whole manuscript in red. As I go through each paragraph, I turn it black when I’m done. This let’s me know…

  • Should I Use Kindle Create? Barnes & Noble Press?

    Should I Use Kindle Create? Barnes & Noble Press?

    Some quick tips on using Kindle Create and Barnes and Noble Press: I am about to release my novella Traption and I have been preparing it in Kindle Create. So the question is: should you Kindle Create to get your books on Amazon.com? Do I have to use Kindle Create or Barnes and Noble Press?…

  • Writing Experiment: Personality Test For Characters

    Writing Experiment: Personality Test For Characters

    Kieren Westwood runs a writing channel on YouTube. Recently, he revealed he used the 16 Personalities website, and took the personality test. But he didn’t take it as himself. He took it as if he were one of his characters. He recommended doing this for a simple analysis of a character’s personality. I’ve been thinking…

  • Don’t Be Afraid to Make Your Character Flawed

    Don’t Be Afraid to Make Your Character Flawed

    Your protagonist and all your other characters don’t need to be perfect. They should have problems, bad habits and insecurities. Don’t worry that your readers won’t like them because this will make them seem more realistic. See more writing tips at Janice Hardy’s blog. Photo by Ron Lach