A first draft of a story looks like this: The final draft of a story looks like this: They are both words on pages, nothing more. Why can’t we just write the final draft the first time? We forget that we’re making ART. You don’t just start from the beginning and Read more
When I asked my friends what would be a good subject for my writer’s blog, the vast majority answered, “Writer’s block!” (And I stared at them mutely because that’s been the subject, in a way, of ALL my posts.) Either they hadn’t been reading my blog before offering advice (Gasp! Read more
The thing you do to be sane and happy should besomething you can control. -Cory Doctorow How to fight writer’s block? Well, we identified it as a mood, so what causes the mood? Boredom with the project? More advice from Cory (and I was chuffed when he gave it Read more
To do lists are the most important tool I use to treat writing like a job. I keep two to-do lists. The first is in my writing journal. When I think of an idea to fix a story, I draw a box and write it in the journal. Then, Read more
I am terrible at plot. (And character, description, mood, theme, setting, and everything else, but particularly plot.) Andy Duncan taught me this plot trick. I don’t know where he got it. You write the names of your characters on a sheet of paper. Now draw an arrow to and from Read more
My writing procrastinating process. At least last night. Step one: Listen to music while playing 2048 for two hours. Step two: daydream about David Bowie. Worry about ethics of daydreaming about actual person, switch to Spike the vampire, Feyd from Dune… specifically as portrayed by Sting, specifically that one scene where Read more
The depressing truth is, all characters we write are filtered through ourselves. I’m not writing a character based on my high school English teacher, I’m writing a character based on MY interpretation of that English teacher. It can feel fake. This gets worse the less you have in common with Read more