Writing a novel is like exploring a forest… There are many different paths, many of them carved out by those who explored before you, and you aren’t quite sure which one to take. Maybe it’s none of them. There’s also a lot of unexplored shrubbery, and you could maybe carve your own way through. You’re […]
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Writing A Novel: Using Settings With A Purpose
Writing a novel is like driving a car, only… The car is low on fuel, it has dodgy steering, and you’re controlling it through the iciness of the Antarctic. Oh, and it has no wheels… Always Used Writers use settings continuously, even when they’re not imperative to the scene in general. Whether deliberately or subconsciously, […]
Writing A Novel: Writing Slow And Fast At The Same Time
Writing a novel is like riding a bull… And you have no saddle, no strap, or no harness. You’re naked too. And the bull is actually a Boeing 747. Purposeful Scene Construction First of all, you’re probably wondering what in the heck we mean by that title. Well, you’ll be pleased to know that it […]
Writing A Novel: No Looking Back
Writing a novel is like baking a cake… for four thousand people in less than an hour, with one hand and zero utensils. It’s A Process There’s nothing quite like the journey of writing a novel. It’s a personal adventure; a seeking of the soul. And it should be regarded with love and respect. The […]
Writing A Novel: How To Skip Ahead In Time Smoothly
Writing a novel is like fishing without a rod or a net or a boat. Or arms or legs or a body. Fishing as a ghost… Nothing You Haven’t Seen Before You might be wondering exactly what we mean by ‘skip ahead’, so we thought we’d clear that up first. We refer to these as […]
A Writing Prompt: Grit
The Purpose Earlier this week with our poetry prompt, we tried out some detailed descriptions – descriptions that focus on one thing for a long time and get very, well, poetic… Funny, right? That a poem would be poetic… You get the point. And point is, we’re going to put what we learned on Monday […]
Writing A Novel: Don’t Wrestle With Futility
Writing a novel is like navigating the world in eighteen days, on foot, and you’re blind, and you have no feet. Too Much Thought Writers around the world share the exact same problem: they overthink like crazy. It’s no huge secret… the community is filled with this evidence. But, that doesn’t make it an acceptable […]
A Poetry Prompt: Swelling Tide
The Purpose You know we believe in poetry as a tool to improve your novel writing. That’s the reason we share these prompts – they can be for poets or novelists, and will be useful for honing the craft of both. The purpose of this one is to focus on really close detail. We want […]
A Writing Prompt: Two Wrongs Make A Crime Scene
The Purpose This prompt comes at you a little differently today. It’s Friday – why not have some fun? Now, you may not enjoy writing or reading crime as a genre, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid using it in your plot. You can include crime and criminality in books outside of that genre […]
Writing A Novel: Do You Need A Prologue?
Writing a novel is like journeying the ocean… But in this instance, you’ve no boat, no equipment, and you can’t bleeding swim! (That, our writing friends, is a very English expression…) An Ever-Growing Debate It’s a topic we see a lot in the community: in heated discussions on Twitter, rage-infused debates in Instagram comments, back-and-forth […]