Process
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Learning to write short stories to improve your long stories
Writing short stories has always been a challenge for me. My ideas are usually too complicated and require a lot of set up and character development. or so I thought. Recently I’ve realized I am not doing myself any favors by refusing to refine this form of writing. After all, just about all my favorite Read more
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The most destructive inclination
It’s been written and rewritten. Hours and days and months years of work and now you really really like your story. There might be a typo you missed. Maybe an awkward phrase you never noticed, but damn it is good, and you are tired of it. An agent or editor will understand. Nothing is ever Read more
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Write your first draft for you and your last draft for your reader
I think I’ve been having an existential crisis. Does that qualify as a good excuse for not posting recently? I’ve been writing much more than average. I polished a final draft. I’m working on a bunch of short stories and really refining my process there. I’ve been catching up on reading. I’ve been brainstorming, outlining, Read more
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Pantser Writing
So if you’ve read my last post, you know that I strongly recommend outlining, especially if you want to keep a steady momentum and keep a short deadline. But the truth is, I don’t always take my own advice. I would like to, because when I have outlined my first draft comes easier and is Read more
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When you have writing momentum DON’T STOP!
You will scrape and toil, pecking out a few horrific words and deleting them for days, weeks, months, years. You will stare at blank pages in utter horror as the words in your mind shrivel, unwritten, into dust. Then one day you still start to write and it will flow. When this happens, my best Read more
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Things you learn when you’re a writer
You might have gone to grad school for creative writing. Or maybe you’ve just joined your first crit group. You might have written twenty eight novels or still be pecking away at your first short story. Regardless of where you are, there are some things that you need to know. I am going to tell Read more
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How to be an excellent critique partner
If you want to keep improving your writing, you will want to foster relationships with people who give you the best feedback. But in order to get you need to give. A great critique partner is not going to continue to spend their precious writing time scouring over your chapter if you are not offering Read more
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The overused phrase
We all have one and it’s practically invisible. To you. But your readers will start to notice it and notice it and notice it, and soon it will start to overshadow your entire story. Yesterday I came across a tweet on my feed. An otherwise awesome book used the same description so many times it Read more
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Start encouraging other writers now
Hey. You with the finished novel and the query plan. And you with the agent and the possible interested publisher. Also, you over there who just got smeared on a writing critique website and that chick beside you with the Masters in Creative Writing. All of you, listen up. You might be great. You might Read more
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Wait for your perfect ending
You can write the most awesome book ever, with a perfectly acceptable ending. And it will be a very nice book. But if you want something more than very nice, then don’t call it finished until the perfect ending comes to you. By perfect I don’t mean tightly edited and polished. That goes without saying. Read more
LC W. Allingham 