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Dreams
Recently I woke up a couple hours earlier than I usually do because of a dream I had. The dream itself wasn’t anything particularly disturbing. It followed weird logic but dreams tend to, so it wasn’t that. It was more that it was almost what normal used to be like. It wasn’t anything that ever…
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Is Said Dead?
Every last one of you is both right and wrong about using the dialogue tag said. The problem is that it’s a rule that has a lot of missing context and nuance, because you need to know when to use it and when to use something else. And reducing it to quirky catchphrases is doing…
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Practice
My parents are musicians, as are most of their siblings and many of my cousins. I’ve had my share of music lessons as well, from both my parents. And one of the things my dad used to tell me is, “how do you get into Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.” As a result, I spent…
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World-building
A lot of my writing process is fast and loose. I create what I need to get started right away and fill in the rest as I go. I need something of a structure in order to start, but it’s nothing rigid or complex because things tend to change as I go. Figuring out how…
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Learning to Outline
The bulk of “The Guardians of Gaia” (the series that “Savior of the Damned” kicks off) has been written or outlined, and so I’m taking a break. It still has a ton of work that needs doing, but mostly it’s all there and I’m happy with the results. It’s been making me think of outlines, however,…
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The Hardest Part
I think the hardest part of an extensive project, like a novel, is remembering how you got from A to Z when it comes to starting a new one. At least, it is for me. I’ve written, to date, five novels and multiple novellas, as well as many short stories, and the hardest part is…
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Word Counts
My daily goal is 2000 words. A lot of the time I can make it, or even surpass it, but sometimes I fall short. Maybe my mental health isn’t the greatest that day. Maybe one of my chronic illnesses is acting up. Maybe my focus isn’t what it could be (and caffeine can only help…
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NaNoWriMo
I am doing NaNoWriMo this year. For those that don’t know, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (November 1st to November 30th). I am doing awfully, if one were to keep score. But I’m not, and I don’t think most do, so I’m…
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Ideas
Where do ideas come from? It’s a question people ask authors all the time, and for the most part, we don’t know. We might be able to say what we were doing when the idea came, but the reality is they kind of arise out of nothingness, the way intrusive thoughts do. So, what is…
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Weaponizing Grammar
I’ll link the post where I talk about why it’s classist, ableist, racist, and rude to correct grammar because I’m here to expand on that topic. I covered those points well enough, but I just had someone report a spelling error in my book and I’m here to talk about why you should either ignore those…