writing
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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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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
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The Alchemist: Required reading for Writers
“Before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people Read more
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I am not a writer
I recently read This Great Article on John Steinbeck, and this quote stuck out to me. “I’m not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people.” He scribbled it in his journal while he wrote The Grapes of Wrath. Pretty much one of the best books ever written. We haven’t touched on imposture syndrome Read more
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Fixing a Climax Chapter
In one of my novels I’m editing there is chapter, a big chapter, an explosive, climactic chapter that is just full of problems. At first I thought it was just the choreography of the final scene. It wasn’t spaced quite right, it didn’t move fluidly, it was confusing and it didn’t possess the punch it Read more
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Research to compliment your story, not to be your story
So if you missed the news, I finished another first draft. Woo hoo! This one was a bit different than my previous projects because it was based on actual mythology and history. Research was necessary. Tons and tons of research. As far as this subject goes (and I don’t want to give away too much Read more
LC W. Allingham 