Category: Organization & Process

Discovering Your World: Organizing the Info

Discovering Your World: Organizing the Info

Due to a week of massive sleep deprivation and the realization that I’ve actually already written a decent post on developing wildlife that said everything I’d say now (see here), I’ve decided to replace my intended post on wildlife with a post on organizing your worldbuilding, to keep things on-schedule.

Worldbuilding is a massive undertaking, and there’s a ton of information to keep straight. Chances are you have info scattered everywhere–a sticky note with a handful of city names, a map tossed in a desk drawer, a binder that has some of your worldbuilding but not all the stuff that you wrote down in various notebooks. Fortunately, there’s a cure for this! Actually, multiple cures, depending on how you like to work. Continue reading “Discovering Your World: Organizing the Info”

Handwriting for Fiction Authors

Handwriting for Fiction Authors

Today’s post is part one of a two-part collaboration with Julia at Lit Aflame! I’ll be talking about how fiction writers can use handwriting/what benefits come from writing on paper, and she’ll be talking about the benefits of typing instead. Her post will be going up on her blog tomorrow, so be sure to check it out!

I don’t often handwrite my fiction. I can type waaaaaaay faster than I can handwrite, so I do that instead. But there are aspects of story-writing that can definitely benefit from writing on paper, and here are a few of them.

Writing on Paper for the Initial Idea

When I have a story idea Continue reading “Handwriting for Fiction Authors”

After Draft 1: What’s the Next Step? – Guest Post by Kellyn Roth

After Draft 1: What’s the Next Step? – Guest Post by Kellyn Roth

Like on Wednesday, today’s article is a guest post! Kellyn Roth just launched her organization Reveries Co., which is a place for indie authors to find cover design, editing, blog tour hosting, interior formatting, web design, etc. There’s more information after the post, so be sure to stick around and check it out!

Many thanks to Kellyn for this post!


Finishing the first draft of your novel is exhilarating! Oftentimes when I finish my first drafts, I don’t want to put them down. I just want to keep working on them.

However, as you’ve no doubt heard, most professionals recommend taking a break after you finish draft one before diving into rewrites or revisions.

Now, this may seem like a bad idea. When you’re excited about the story, shouldn’t you keep working on it? What if you fervor dies? What if you can’t remember what all was going on when you return to it? Continue reading “After Draft 1: What’s the Next Step? – Guest Post by Kellyn Roth”

Character Profiles – Help or Waste?

Character Profiles – Help or Waste?

When creating characters, you’re often told to use character profiles. But do they really help you flesh out your characters or are they just laundry lists of useless facts you’ll never use? I think they usually tend to be a combination, and it depends on the profile. There are some character profiles with more hard-hitting questions and there are some with more shallow questions, and how much you get out of a profile depends somewhat on what the balance is.

Character profiles are also more or less helpful for each writer, since every writer is different. I tend to like them because they give me things to think about regarding the character that I won’t necessarily think of on my own, and then a place to write them down, but others just find them time-consuming and would rather learn about their characters through writing. Neither of these is wrong, and I’ve used both methods in the past.

So what should you look for or put on a character profile? Continue reading “Character Profiles – Help or Waste?”

Why Writing Isn’t a Solo Activity

Why Writing Isn’t a Solo Activity

People always talk about writing being an introverted profession. We sit at our desks for hours on end, silently producing words and sharing them with few people, until we finish it and have to share it with an editor and then the world. But writing shouldn’t be an isolated activity. We need help now and then (from actual people, not just Google), and we need support. So let’s get into Continue reading “Why Writing Isn’t a Solo Activity”