How to Prepare for Your First NaNoWriMo (Beginner’s Guide)
The stresses of the daunting task quickly ceased as my excitement for the upcoming project grew—my first NaNoWriMo. 50,000 words. 30 days. Never in my life have I written anywhere close to 50,000 words in a month, but here we are. I’m preparing for my first NaNoWriMo, and if you have found yourself with the same goal, here’s everything I’m doing to prepare. November’s still a little while off, so now is the absolute best time to start preparing. The focus of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a lot of writing > great writing. So, in the 30 days of November, the goal is to write 50,000 words! With…
How To Stay Inspired to Write Long Term
Writing novels is an entirely different challenge from writing short stories and flash fiction. Though each has its own set of pros and cons, writing full-length novels requires long-lasting motivation. To continue writing (possibly for years) one story in spite of the boredom, disinterest, and frustration is a feat like no other. But how do you stay inspired to write long-term? At some point along the project, you’re bound to feel a lack of interest, a lack of motivation, and uncertainty about where to take the story. These feelings are inevitable, but knowing how to handle them can help ease their discomfort. Here’s my advice on how to stay inspired…
How To Build a Daily Writing Habit—Even When You’re Busy
I know as authors we plan to write every day, but life often has plans of its own. Writing gets put to the back burner again and we continue with the ‘more important’ things. But, if you want to be a writer, you need to write! Developing a daily writing habit matters—especially for busy people who can tend to let writing go for later. This post will help you to develop a consistent writing habit with actionable steps and mindset shifts. Why a Daily Writing Habit Is Worth Your Time Let me make it clear: when I say “daily” don’t think this will be an everyday thing. Like I said,…
How To Write Poetry for Absolute Beginners
Poetry—I’ve become quite intrigued by poetry these past few years. And that’s quite new to me. I enjoy the layers of symbolism and themes that come from poems. So, I’ve decided to finally look into how to write poetry, learn more about the craft, and share what I’ve found with you. I’ve found poetry to be an excellent tool for creative writers and authors. The shortness of poems allows authors to add to their portfolio quickly. Not only that, but poetry also stretches your writing muscles by forcing you to write in a new way. So, I want to share with you the basics of poetry, how and where to…
How To Write Dialogue in a Story with These Tips
Learning how to write dialogue can be a tricky thing for many writers. Not only are there so many rules in regard to formatting and punctuation, but crafting natural, purposeful dialogue is tough to master. So, not only is dialogue hard to write, but it is also an essential part of a good story. I think good dialogue in any story includes four parts: it’s natural, it’s meaningful, it adds personality, and it is interesting to read. When you incorporate these elements, you can be confident in writing dialogue. Let’s look closer at these elements and better understand how to write dialogue in a story. How To Write Dialogue Make…
How To Write a Good Plot Twist
If you’ve ever been into a great book, absorbed into the story, and bam plot twist. Suddenly, you’re hooked deeper, you can’t put the book down, and you realize all the small clues you missed. ‘How did I not see this coming?’ you might think to yourself as everything begins to make sense and fall into place. You finish the book, amazed at the twist that changed everything. Have you ever been into a great book and suddenly bam plot twist. And, suddenly, you’re confused. ‘Where did this come from?’ you ask yourself. ‘This doesn’t make any sense.’ You are more lost than ever and you begin to lose interest…
How To Write Dark Fiction That is Thought-Provoking
Many people feel dark fiction has become popular only in the last few decades. However, this is a genre that has been around from the days of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the 1800s all the way till today. Because we live in a world that can sometimes be dark and scary, dark fiction will always be not only relevant, but popular. The problem many authors face when trying to understand how to write dark fiction is how far too far is. How do you write about dark subjects in a way that engages readers rather than overwhelms them? Let’s take a few minutes to understand what dark fiction is, why…
How To Write Consistently with 3 Simple Habits
The more you write the better your skills will become, but learning to stick to a consistent writing habit can be tricky. Many writers (me included) go through phases of writing frequently and then not writing at all. However, inconsistent writing is unproductive and ineffective at improving skills. The key to consistent writing is having small, manageable goals with sufficient breaks to avoid burnout. Once you learn to build a consistent writing habit, you should notice your writing improve steadily and the amount you write increases. Some of the best habits involve small changes that you can keep up with, will keep writing fun, and help avoid the dreaded burnout.…
How To Write with Confidence
To write with confidence, well, does such a thing even exist? Most writers, even the super successful ones, aren’t completely confident in their work. But the thing is, the successful ones learn to work around their critical nature and write anyway. Unfortunately, some writers get so stuck in their lack of confidence that they let it prevent them from putting their work out into the world. They don’t think it’s worthy or they worry people won’t like it, so they keep it hidden away. And it’s quite the internal struggle: the desire to write and let your work mean something and the overwhelming fear that it’s not good enough, that…
How To Pace a Novel for Beginners
There are many tips on how to pace a novel: plot points, percentages, guidelines, oh my! It can be confusing to know how to actually implement these tips while drafting your story. I mean we know where these events fall in relation to each other—the rising action leads to the climax which leads to the resolution—but how do we time these events and make sure we stay on course? Well, I’ll discuss the general rules for pacing a novel, how to actual write using them, and how to not overwhelm yourself. Let’s go! General Rules for Pacing Plot points are the most basic guide when plotting your story. I’m sure…
