If you’re a writer and happen to live in Austin, TX, I invite you to come out to Half Price Price on Sunday, November 17th at 3:30pm for an hour-long crash course on Scrivener—taught by me!
Writing Tools
Getting old stories out of the house
“You grow a whole lot more as a writer by getting old stories out of the house and letting new ones come in and live with you until they grow up and are ready to go. Don’t let the old ones stay there and grow fat and cranky and eat all the food out of the refrigerator. You have dozens of generations of stories inside you, but the only way to make room for the new ones is to write the old ones and mail them off.”
– Orson Scott Card, How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy
One begins to see Herbert’s essential themes…
“…one begins to see Herbert’s essential themes. One of his central ideas is that human consciousness exists on—and by virtue of—a dangerous edge of crisis, and that the most essential human strength is the ability to dance on that edge. The more man confronts the dangers of the unknown, the more conscious he becomes. All […]
Tactical writing advice if you’re stuck in the middle of a novel
There’s a lot of theoretical advice for writers out there, but not nearly enough written on practical matters. The actual how-to of writing fiction. When I was invited to write a piece for Natasha Lane’s blog, I decided to focus on the practical and wrote about 5 Tactics Novelists Can Use to Rescue Themselves from the […]
This is the other secret…
This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod […]
Scrivener 3 update incoming! Here’s a peek
I try to keep my insane, nearly fanatical, love of writing tools contained—at least in public and on this blog—but I have to take a moment to share how excited I am about the Scrivener 3 update that’s coming out on November 20th. According to their blog, it will look a little something like this: […]
It is change, continuing change…
“It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be … This, in turn, means that our statesmen, our businessmen, our everyman must take […]
Much blood has also been spilled…
“Much blood has also been spilled on the carpet in attempts to distinguish between science fiction and fantasy. I have suggested an operational definition: science fiction is something that COULD happen – but usually you wouldn’t want it to. Fantasy is something that COULDN’T happen – though often you only wish that it could.” – […]
This is how you do it…
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It’s that easy, and that hard.” Neil Gaiman
Fast drafting mindset on Day 1 of NaNoWriMo
Today is day 1 of NaNoWriMo.
Which means thousands and thousands of people are setting out on the crazy journey to write a 50,000 word novel in one month.
That’s 1667 words a day.
Which is awesome. Crazy awesome.