Category: writing

  • Ways to Enrich Your Writing Skills

    Ways to Enrich Your Writing Skills

    Click to enlarge infographic. Photo by Stacey Gabrielle Koenitz Rozells

  • Silas House and Where He Finds Inspiration

    Silas House and Where He Finds Inspiration

    In a post from last week, I discussed weaving in backstory to avoid infodumps. Coincidentally, the day I posted it on this blog, I attended the Speed Art Museum that evening where Kentucky author Silas House spoke on the subject. One thing he said stuck out to me: “I believe there’s a very thing veil…

  • Friday’s Findings: Balancing Descriptions

    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

    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,…

  • Do I Really Need to “Practice” Writing?

    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

    Top Rules for Creative Writing

    Photo by Anni Roenkae

  • 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…

  • Do you want to write a narrative?

    Do you want to write a narrative?

    Photo by Anni Roenkae

  • Camp NaNoWriMo Update #5

    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…