Tweet At this point, you’ve got my NaNoWriMo review, and you’ve got Courtney’s, and if you’re following any other writers’ blogs (as you probably should be), you’ve got a lot more. NaNoWriMo is all about not looking ahead, and not looking back, but just looking right at the blinking cursor at the end of your […]
Tweet November’s finally at an end. So far I’ve loved every NaNoWriMo I’ve participated in, and I’ve been intensely grateful when each one of them ended. It’s part of the process. I had a good year in 2010. That sentence is true all on its own, but I mean it here particularly as a comment […]
Tweet This week we’ve been talking about writing setbacks, and the biggest setback of all: not wanting to write. It’s part of the process, but that doesn’t mean it’s pleasant, and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s productive. (Alliteration is fun.) As I said yesterday, every writer occasionally feels that sense of ultimate distraction. It’s a […]
Tweet This week I shared a story of a major writing setback when I outran my own scene list. I’ve also told stories before about losing pages, chapters, books. The writer’s life is tragedy. Partly, that’s because of the unpredictable nature of the process. Mostly, it’s because writers spend so much of their time wallowing […]
I’ve been writing about zombies, so the details are gory. And I know some of my darlingest inklings don’t care to read about pus, blood, and guts. So all you need to know is that I’ve had a fairly miserable writing week.
But. Friday and Saturday, I did something that I knew I needed to do and that a conversation with the writing group reinforced to me that I needed to do…
Tweet I’m a big believer in prewriting. I design my stories, building them with care before I even start writing. Somebody once said even the best battle plan only lasts until the first shot is fired (or something to that effect). It certainly applies to writing. Stories change in the telling. It’s just part of […]
Tweet Yesterday we talked about the slow process of writing a book in a hurry. About achieving something great six months from now by doing something pathetic and tedious today. National Novel Writing Month is a crash course in precisely that process. It’s something on the order of 20+ days of pathetic and tedious, crammed […]
Tweet This week I started with a story about trying to get started jogging again. I almost didn’t post it. I felt like maybe it was a little too personal, and I wasn’t sure you’d much care. But one of the things I’m learning as I study writing this fall is that good storytelling is […]
Tweet It’s been four and a half months since I talked about my passion for walking, and all the clear and obvious benefits I’d gotten from the simple act of going out every day and exercising. That was a popular post back then, and getting in that habit was one of the best things I’ve […]
Tweet I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating for some context. I’m a 3-time NaNoWriMo winner (although last year’s probably deserves an asterisk, because I made up my own rules). 2009: 51,242 words (spread across three books and a short story) 2008: 60,080 words (Gods Tomorrow) 2007: 121,958 words (Sleeping Kings: The Shepherd) That’s […]
