The first time I heard the words “Show don’t tell” I was in my first college creative writing class. The professor, a well meaning man with a masters degree in English, did not really elaborate beyond that. He did provide us with excellent reading and advice throughout the semester that I knew improved my writingContinue reading “Show vs Tell: The oldest and most confusing advice in the book.”
Category Archives: Writing
The Power of a Paragraph
Formatting my writing has always been something that did not come naturally to me. Since I spent a good portion of my early writing days on roleplay forums and writing fanfiction, I quickly got into some bad habits when it came to how my paragraphs and dialogue looked on the page. From roleplay writing, IContinue reading “The Power of a Paragraph”
Why Feedback is your friend
It might even be your BEST friend. I know that may sound a little crazy, considering how painful feedback on your work can be. People want you to delve deeper, to kill your darlings, change your setting, edit or delete that line of prose you were super attached to. Also, honestly? It feels great whenContinue reading “Why Feedback is your friend”
Procrastination Station
You may or may not have noticed, but it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve posted on ye ole blog. Life got kind of hectic with a family reunion and a convention, both of which involved travel and not a lot of time to write. This post isn’t about that though, it’s about the dreadContinue reading “Procrastination Station”
Fail Better: Improving your writing and facing your fears
When I tell people that I’m working towards a professional career as a writer, I often get this sort of response from other people who want to be a writer/want to write a book: “Dude! That’s what I want to do! How are you doing that?!” Or “That’s my dream, but I don’t have theContinue reading “Fail Better: Improving your writing and facing your fears”
Capturing the Muse: How to Spark Creative Ideas
A few years ago when I set out on my path to become a writer, I remember being filled with dread that I only had one good idea in me. I had been trying to write the same book for about 7 years and had not really ever tried to outline or spark another idea.Continue reading “Capturing the Muse: How to Spark Creative Ideas”
Going beyond Writer’s Block
I’ve been thinking a lot about Writer’s Block lately. It used to be a concept that I wholeheartedly subscribed to. My novel never got finished because I was “blocked” among other excuses. That’s the lie of Writer’s block, it tells you can’t complete your project and gives you an easy excuse to wiggle your wayContinue reading “Going beyond Writer’s Block”
Well Written Female Characters: A How to Guide, Part 3
Like I mentioned last week, today’s post is going to be about variance and diversity in your female characters personality. Hopefully at this point you have more than one female character in your story, which is really the first step. I know I’ve talked to other writers who sometimes feel like their female characters haveContinue reading “Well Written Female Characters: A How to Guide, Part 3”
Well Written Female Characters: A How to Guide, Part 2
Last time I covered ways to get you started on writing well written female characters. Today I’d like to give you a few more tips and some exercises to help you look critically at the characters you’ve constructed. I’ll get right down to it. 1. Take your female character, and flip her gender, just asContinue reading “Well Written Female Characters: A How to Guide, Part 2”
Well Written Female Characters: A How to Guide, Part 1
Women tend to be vastly underrepresented in many sides of popular media, including video games (a recent study found that only 10-15% of primary and secondary characters were female) and movies (see: Bechdel test). So to me it’s really no wonder that some writers find it difficult to write women that either don’t fall intoContinue reading “Well Written Female Characters: A How to Guide, Part 1”
The Taming of the Muse 