One of my absolute favorite books on writing craft is a screenwriting book titled Save the Cat. It was written by Blake Snyder and it’s a fascinating read. Within it is my most-often-used tool, the “Beat Sheet,” which gives a basic plot of the beats that happen in a film or, for my purposes, a …
First, the usual disclaimer: everyone has their own process! Or if they don’t have a process, the fact that they don’t have a process is their process, know what I mean? That said, here’s what works best for me. At least, it usually works best. 🙂 Step 1: Get a notebook and a pen. Turn …
When I first started writing novels, I mostly wrote them in notebooks and then later typed them up. I vastly preferred drafting in notebooks, because this was in the days before I had a laptop. Even now, a notebook is much more portable. It doesn’t need batteries. I don’t have to worry about some little …
Dragon Dictation is one of those handy writer tools that has saved my time (and my wrists) on more than one occasion. I first seriously considered dictation when I read Chris Fox’s 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter because he talked up dictation as a time-saving measure. I type pretty fast, though, so …
As I wrap up the Haunted Halls: Winter’s Cavern trilogy, I’m already looking ahead to what’s next this year! I don’t want months and months to go by without publishing something, because let’s be honest, I’m sad when I don’t have work coming out regularly. What you might not know about me is that one …
Today’s writing topic is all about outlines and how they work for me. I’m not going to stand here (sit here, really–still haven’t put together my new standing desk) and tell you that every writer must use an outline. For me, it helps. I stress out if I don’t know where the story’s going, and …
One thing that keeps me going while writing is keeping track of my word count! Having a production goal–whether it’s for words, scenes, chapters, or pages–keeps me more accountable to myself. Because let’s face it–we can tell everyone in the world that we’re writing a book, but nobody can actually make us sit down and …