Tips from Other People, Part One

I’m rapidly approaching the editing stage for my own novel, and honestly, I’m dreading it. I love editing other people’s work, but self-editing is a different beast entirely. Usually by the time a novel is finished, I’ve become so familiar with every word they start to blur together, and it’s hard for me to see […] …

Malignant Rigidities.

You know that feeling you get when you're sitting with a blank notebook, a sudden urge to write? I don't have it. With apologies to Captain Jack Sparrow, this misquote exactly summed up my state of being over the past few days. It wasn't writer's block exactly. I knew what I should have been doing, …

Quintessence Pure.

It's World Poetry Day, you guys. This is a fantastic piece of serendipity, because I have some poetry to share with you guys. Not my own poetry. I won't disrespect the day like that. Milton's poetry. I've been slowly working my way through Paradise Lost, which is absolutely amazing, and at its best when read aloud. …

Don’t Ignore Your Facets.

I don't know about you, but when I'm deep in a writing project, I can tend to forget about everything else. And not only when I'm actually doing the work of writing, but all the time. There are times when this should probably be a problem, like when I forget to keep up with basic …

No Matter.

"No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often as important as what you do read." -Lemony Snicket, Horseradish A little follow-up on my last post. By the way, if you haven't read Horseradish yet, you totally need to.

Where the Inner and Outer Intersect.

A little over a year ago, I wrote a post encouraging writers to explore their favorite books in order to learn more about themselves as writers. As I stated at the time, I couldn't remember where I discovered the exercise. Well, I have found it. In a whole huge stack of papers that somehow got …

Please [Please] Do Your Research.

A while back I went on a mini-rant about people who don't do their research before saying silly things online. Well. At least that was just a silly YouTube comment from somebody random, and not a full on article from Refinery29, who should really know better. That's right, ladies and gents. Let me break it …

Back to the Basics.

Well, I've finished my writing class, and I'm feeling both accomplished and bereft. I learned way (way way) more than I anticipated, which should just teach me not to underestimate the importance of beginner-level classes. Hey. That just gave me the theme I needed for today's post. I kid you not, I was just rambling …