How to avoid “filter” and “crutch words” in your writing
Hey everyone! Today we’re again talking some more about writing craft. There are just so many different topics in which we can improve as writers, and this is yet another topic. “Filter words” and “Crutch words” are just things that slow down your writing, but they’re a lot more than that. We’re discussing exactly what […]
Editing: the Big Questions
Hey everyone! Today I’m going to talk a little bit more about the editing process, which can leave so many writers confused. Everyone does writing differently–some people edit as they write their first drafts–and others don’t, so you always have to find which method is perfect for you. What I’m going to say here might […]
Learning to Differentiate your POV
This is another post in my series I’ve done about POVs. You can find out the first post here, where I talk about how I choose which POV is best for my story, and the second post where I talk about possible POVs and how they work in each story. This week, I’m going to […]
How to use Scrivener, Part 1: Creating Your Novel
Hello, everyone! Today we’re going to talk about one of my favorite topics: Scrivener! For those of you who don’t know, Scrivener is an amazing writing tool that many writers use to draft their manuscripts. It’s designed for both writers and screenwriters, and has an amazing set of features that allows you to move chapters […]
Knowing Your Genre, Part Five: The Last One
Hey everyone! For those who have been following my blog for a while, you know I’m writing a big series of posts on genres in fiction and how to identify what your book is, and what it’s not. It helps especially when you’re querying, because when an agent sees “time-travel sci-fi”, they know exactly what […]
Knowing Your Genre, Part 3: Magical Realism
Hi everyone! This is the third post on a series where I discuss literary genres. This week I’ll be discussing magical realism. Read part 1, Fantasy. Read part 2, Science Fiction. Read part 4, Horror. Read part 5, Thriller and others. So what is Magical realism? Magical Realism is one of the hardest genres to […]
Knowing Your Genre, Part 2: Science Fiction
Hi everyone, and welcome to the second blog post on the series on Genres I’m doing. Last week I talked about fantasy subgenres, and this week my sole focus is science fiction. Read Part 1: Fantasy. Read Part 3: Magical Realism. Read part 4: Horror. Read part 5: Thrillers and others. For those who are […]
Knowing Your Genre, Part One: Fantasy
Hello everyone! With PitchWars almost in the corner and everyone getting ready for submission, it’s time we all have everything set — there’s always time for last minute revisions and changing your queries, but don’t stress it out. After posting my wishlist, there was a particular question that I got asked a couple of times: […]
Your Experience is Not Universal: and that’s okay
There’s been a constant discussion on twitter about writing and who gets to write what. As for contemporary, there’s always been that unspoken rule about #ownvoices — someone writing from their own experience will have better knowledge of the subject, and thus will know what they are talking about, and it’ll be written with better […]
Calling Out Problematic Books
From time to time, we see this come up in book twitter. A book is flagged as problematic, or has some content that we have an issue with. First of all, this is NORMAL. Not every book is going to be perfect. I dare say we are all problematic from time to time, and make […]