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Oh, The Heights and Fights: A Door in the Dark, A Review
I miss the days when my book reading friends and I eagerly awaited the next Harry Potter tome. I’m always looking for a fantasy novel with the wizard academy trope, like The Magicians by Lev Grossman or Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. Even the Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo falls into that category.…
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Friday’s Findings: Storytelling Tips and Techniques
Got an extra Audible credit you want to use? Looking to take a creative writing class? Then I recommend Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques. This is part of The Great Courses Series on Audible. James Hynes, a writing professor and novelist, narrates this 24 lecture course on writing novels and short stories. I…
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Friday’s Findings: Discovering Flannery O’Connor
A couple months ago, my supervisor came into the office excited about a movie being filmed in town. Ethan Hawke had been spotted by the local paper at various locations: the zoo, Old Louisville, and nearby small towns. “He’s filming and directing a movie about Flannery O’Connor,” my boss exclaimed. She loves O’Connor’s short stories.…
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MY FAVORITE SF&F SHOWS, PART 7
Much to my chagrin, I’ve been doing more watching science fiction and fantasy shows than writing lately. But, thankfully, I’m back to writing now that these three shows have concluded: Shadow and Bone, Season 2 I just finished reading all of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaworld novels before watching season 2 of Shadow and Bone. If you…
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Friday’s Findings: How to Write Fast
Some writers imagine the writing process as slow and meticulous. They take their time composing that first draft, lingering over it for months, maybe years. These writers are tortoises and they don’t mind. However, in How to Write Fast by Sean Platt and Neeve Silver, the writing process is the hare, not the tortoise. They…
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Do you create an annual reading list?
Ugh. I only read 20 books last year. Yes, yes, I know. That’s probably more than a lot of people. But for me, that’s not a lot. For some reason, I didn’t feel as motivated to read. To me, reading regularly is essential if I’m going to be a writer. And I had several “to-read”…
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NaNoWriMo Day 30: Some resources to check out
No two writers approach their WIPs in the same way. Over the years, I’ve used a combination of the following methods to develop my stories. You may be familiar with some of them. Some of them may be new. I cherry pick parts from them and have created an amalgam of a fiction creating process…
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NaNoWriMo Day 29: Seeking the senses
On Thanksgiving Day, I accompanied my mom and her husband to volunteer at a church serving T-day meals to the homeless and low-income families. It was a nice break from working on my NaNoWriMo project. The three of us ending up on the team of volunteers who picked up paper plates and cups from those…
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NaNoWriMo Day 28: Over the finish line
I wrote the last 2800 words yesterday and reach 50K. I won NaNoWriMo 2022! My project is called Normous, and it’s a novella. It is the fifth episode in my series I call Consortium. In my blog posts throughout this month, I described how I outlined Normous in three steps, and then spent the rest…
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