First things first: I have not posted it a long time. If this were writing, there would be no excuse. However, since writing is the reason I haven't posted...

Ah, what the heck. I was lazy.

But when I was going over my old posts, I realized something horrific: I had never, not once, mentioned Worldbuilding.

Yes, Worldbuilding, with a capital W.

If you ( Read more... )

 Okay, now you have characters and they have motivations. You've developed a conflict. If you've gotten to there, you probably have some idea what you want to happen in your story. Now, there are plenty of different approaches to this stage of the game, but for now I'll start with one.

Figure out where you want your characters to end up.

Yes, it's ( Read more... )

 ...because plotting takes a capital P.

I'm planning on doing a series of posts (not necessarily consecutive) about plotting, because it's such a huge topic and there are so many different ways to do it. I'm a firm believer in having a chapter outline of some sort, whether it's a sentence in summary or a spreadsheet of details. But I'll start with ( Read more... )

 Here's my best piece of advice for this part of the novel ( Read more... )

 Yes, I'm a sucker for alliteration. Sue me.

I've heard people say that writing a novel is like pregnancy. I've heard others say it's like running a marathon. I say it's like going on a diet.

The idea of a diet is a fantastic thing. For days, maybe weeks, you walk around your house, thinking of the foods you're going to eat and the exercises you're ( Read more... )

 There are a lot of really good things about blogging. It’s a way to express your feelings on something, it’s a way to connect to other people, it’s a way to… well, it’s great for a lot of things ( Read more... )