This month I want to let the words flow, and find my way back to the swift flowing river and out of the stagnant creek up which I have floundered. *Blows cobwebs out of wordpress* Back in the summer of 2010, I started writing my first, still unfinished novel. In | Read more…
On the evolution of stories and a case of unexpected philosophy. Muse There are those who scoff at authors when they claim they have no control over the stories that they tell, that they are a conduit through which stories are told, more like a medium than an engineer. That | Read more…
Along with the rest of Britain, I’ve had a bit of a dry spell recently. A blogging dry spell at least. Hopefully the two aren’t linked and it won’t start raining as a result of me posting an update. This is a bit of a general update and “what’s coming | Read more…
Some thoughts on the use of song lyrics and other copyrighted material in fiction or other media. This weekend the subject of quoting song lyrics in works of fiction came up in conversation with another writer. He wanted to know whether he would be allowed to quote lines from a | Read more…
While I’ve come across advice in the writing world that pushes reluctant writers to eventually take the plunge and try submitting their work, it is far outweighed by that desperately trying to instill some sort of reality check. I have never been one to expect I will “get good” at | Read more…
When I review a book I like to think about what I can learn from it. A few weeks ago I reviewed Crimes Against Magic by Steve McHugh, and it got me thinking about the pitfalls of making your hero too powerful. Nate Garrett, centuries old sorcerer assassin is a | Read more…
Last week I reviewed The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. These days, when I read a book, I like to look back and think about what I can learn from it. Whether it’s something the author did well and I can try to incorporate into my own writing, or something | Read more…
A pessimist’s view on the option of self-publishing. When faced with rejection, the aspiring author used to have two options: consign the unpublished novel to a dusty drawer somewhere, never to see the light of day again, or take a deep breath, dive in, and rewrite and reword, repeatedly, until | Read more…
“How’s NaNoWriMo going Chrissey?” “Don’t ask.” As NaNoWriMo draws to an end I find myself only just creeping over 15,000 words. It has not been the avalanche of creativity that I was hoping for. I would like to blame external influences and distractions, and that would be partially true, but | Read more…
A few weeks ago I wrote a post on scheduling creativity where I described a little about my failure to complete Camp NaNoWriMo in August. Now it’s November and I’m trying again with the original and best NaNoWriMo. Whilst my project in the summer was an unplanned idea which I | Read more…