Category: Writing Tips
-
Creating Three-Dimensional Characters
Have you ever watched a character in a movie and wondered why they make certain decisions? “Don’t split up!”“Don’t touch that alien!”“Don’t eat that random, mystery mushroom!” Realistic character decisions and actions are important because your characters serve as vessels for your reader. They are the guides who lead us…
-
Word Economy
This is a lesson that took me a long time to learn. Let’s get the definition out of the way. Word economy is the practice of using fewer words to say more. With practice, you can internalize the practice into your way of thinking so that you can comfortably write…
-
Outlining: The Wandering Method
This method doesn’t even really need an outline. Sometimes, if I want to do something creatively fun or just get a little writing practice in, I’ll come up with a concept and an end destination, then let myself go and see how I’ll wind up at the end. This outline…
-
Outlining: The Trail Marker Method
I use the Trail Marker Method when I have a story idea that isn’t quite so plot-heavy. This is a method where I space out the major points of the story, allowing for more space to explore and improvise. This method works well for me when I’m writing something that…
-
Outlining: The Breadcrumb Method
Remember outlining essays back in school? Before you even started writing the essay, teachers would make you write your thesis statement, 3 or 4 topic sentences, and then a few bulleted detail sentences beneath each topic. It felt like just an extra homework assignment, designed to stretch out the writing…
-
Who edits the editors?
A friend of mine is self-publishing his first book, and he mentioned how much money he was investing in his cover art. It felt high to me, so I asked him how much he spent on the other parts of the self-publishing process. “Like, how much did you spend on…
Writing During an Apocalypse 