I recently received a notification from WordPress congratulating me on the anniversary of my blog. As of June, it’s been around for 5 years! That might be a long time to some, or a short time depending on how you measure things, but in either case, it’s enough to learn a lesson or two, so …
Just like handover notes will help when coming back to a project after time away, taking stock as you move from one year to the next is a great habit to get into. It also helps shift you into the right head and physical space to achieve your writing goals, with a reset if you're …
Continue reading Taking Stock: Resetting To Hit Your Writing Goals
When it comes to crafting your characters, one important thing to include is motivation. It’s not just because motivation will get the story moving forward, but because it will also help you create well-rounded characters readers will relate to and become invested in. If that sounds like something you want to include in your book, …
While you might not be a writer of action-based books, chances are if there’s any type of conflict in your novel, you may have to write an action scene. I did, after starting my YA series, Blackbirch. For a book about teens with magickal abilities, there ended up being a few scenes that required me …
When you set out to write a novel, you quickly learn that it takes a lot of drafts. There’s the first draft, which is laying down the story. The second works out what the story is missing, and every draft after is refining until it becomes the finished book. How many drafts that takes depends …
Continue reading Motivational Tricks To Keep You Working On Your Manuscript
When you become a writer, one of the "rules" you're advised to learn is to avoid info-dumping. If you haven't heard of it before, it's when the writer bombards the reader with everything they think they should know—all at once. While you might think there's no way you do that, info-dumping is an easy trap …
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time in the last four years, you’ll know I’m a fan of writing routines, being organized, and to-do lists! While I regularly assess and change my writing routine depending on how my life is going, if I find something that helps with the routine, I’ll …
Ah, point of view (POV), a writing essential to include in your book but something that you can get so easily wrong. It doesn't take much to slip from the view of the character who is telling your story, and you might not even notice you've done it. That's where the following advice comes in …
Continue reading Point Of View Errors! How To Spot And Fix Them
While a great storyline and an intense setting can make for an excellent read, what really creates a great book is awesome characters. After all, how many pages have you kept turning just to see what happens to the MC? Getting your reader to care about your characters is a task every writer should aim …
K.M. Allan 