Posts under ‘Writing’

I? Just finished a novel. It’s a very rough first draft, and the middle kind of sucks, and it’s 10,000 words too short. But I have a complete draft, with a beginning, middle, and end, and it tells a proper story. Writing a novel is one of those things that you don’t know if you [...]

It was a long week, and I was tired by the time I got home last night, but I was determined to make my wordcount. Determined. So I pushed on, despite the snuggly cat rumbling in my lap, the warm soporific puppy draped across my ankles, despite the eyelids drifting closed. I made my wordcount, [...]

This is how the New Year began. I hope it isn’t an omen And here’s how the old year went, or at least the SFF-related bits: According to my Goodreads list, I read 108 books in 2010 (not counting things read purely for work). Not bad. One of my goals for the year was to [...]

I mentioned last night on Twitter that I was researching Renaissance Italian streetnames, and Chia Lynn asked if I’d share some research resources. I’m working on a fantasy novel with an Italoid setting – patterned on fifteenth century Tuscany, though without the omnipresent religion. This is a really easy time and place to research, especially [...]

I’m winding up National Novel Writing Month with 16427 words. I realize that isn’t anywhere near 50k, but I’m pleased. I met my goal for the month, which was to write every day (except for the two days I was running a weaving symposium and knew in advance I wouldn’t have time), and to get [...]

There’s a theory of competence that goes something like this: Unconscious incompetence: you not only don’t know how to do something, you don’t even know enough to realize how little skill you have. I think this relates to the Dunning-Kruger effect, where the less you know, the more likely you are to believe that you [...]

A very full October has concluded. I still haven’t written much about Viable Paradise, but I will. I’ve been gone every weekend in October, and weekends are when I usually get blogging done. Also fiction writing and many other useful things. October was very good in many ways, but I’m glad it’s over. November won’t [...]

I was stuck on writing fiction this weekend, so I went to the library to look at some books. I found the architectural and city photographs I was looking for. They sparked the desired ideas and motivation. But I also found something else, and it resolved for me a much trickier plot point that I [...]

Writers get lots of questions about writing. There’s a certain glamor about the profession, and lots and lots of people think they’d like to write someday. One of the most common questions seems to be: how do you find time and inspiration to write. The most common answer writers give is that there’s no magic [...]

Success! By 2pm on Monday I had washed the dishes, done some laundry, eaten sourdough pancakes, and written 3,000 words or so, for a weekend total of 10,101. Yes, I did go back and add two words to make a pretty number. So? I’m up to 28,000 words on the whole thing. I could have [...]