Regardless of whether your story uses a world full of fantasy-filled adventures or one as mundane as our own, there’s an art to world-building. And it's an art that can be overwhelming for writers who’ve never created a world before, or ones attempting their biggest yet—such as a foray into a book series. But world-building …
As writers, we’ve all had those moments when it’s been hard to sit down and write. It could be because other responsibilities have kept us away from our writing desks, or illness has sidelined us. Then there are those times when we’ve been able to write and we just… don’t. When that happens, it’s down …
Continue reading How To Stop Self-Sabotaging Your Writing Progress
Welcome to the September 2021 roundup! And here we are at the end of yet another month. Despite it being a string of Groundhog Lockdown Days, some things were different. Here in Victoria, we had an earthquake! Thankfully it only lasted a few minutes and didn't cause any injuries, but it sure was scary. I've …
If you read last week’s blog post, you’ll know we looked at some common writing gremlins, such as overwriting, multiple gestures, extra staging, etc (check out the full post here). When the post went live, a few readers commented on underwriting being one of their gremlins. As a chronic overwriter, underwriting hadn’t occurred to me, …
Just as every writer has a way to come up with ideas and put them on the page, there are writing gremlins that pop up with every draft they complete. Sometimes you recognize these gremlins on your own, or sometimes it has to be pointed out to you. This happened to me recently when I …
Welcome to the August 2021 roundup! Who else blinked and suddenly it was the end of August? I'm surprised it went so fast considering every day felt like Groundhog Day. Once again, it was spent in lockdown (#6 for those counting), which is still ongoing. I was also in hospital for some of the month, …
Any writer who has gotten to the beta reader feedback stage of their writing journey knows handing your MS to others to read is a helpful part of the process. It can be essential for addressing plot issues, character flaws, confusing narratives, what works and what doesn’t, and picking up those elusive typos. It’s also …
Welcome to the July 2021 roundup! Another month has passed and once again, part of it was spent in lockdown. Victoria (where I live in Australia), had its 5th lockdown this month, and we were joined by other states, South Australia and NSW, essentially putting half of the country in lockdown. If you've been following …
While my latest work in progress is off with beta readers, I turned my attention to another manuscript, the 4th book in my YA series, Blackbirch. The last time I worked on this MS was in 2017. Since that time, the first 2 books in the series have been published (in 2o20) and the 3rd …
