Last week I talked about what I think are some of the most valuable investments you can make in your author career. I started off with the basics in that post, but there are a lot of worthwhile investments you can make to improve your career. A lot of the investments listed in this post are Continue reading “More Author Career Investments You Should Be Making”
Category: Resources & Recommendations
5 Types of Dragons (with Examples)
A reader recently asked me where to start with books featuring dragons, and I ended up giving a handful of recommendations featuring different types of dragon portrayals. I thought it would be interesting to write a blog post about these different portrayals, plus provide some dragon book recommendations for other readers, so here we are!
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1. Villainous Dragons
In western literature, anyway, dragons were originally Continue reading “5 Types of Dragons (with Examples)”
NaNoWriMo Alternatives – Word Count Tracker Options & Community
I’ve been participating in National Novel Writing Month since 2014, and I think the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days is a great tool to get people writing and foster community among writers and just overall encourage authors. Lately, however, the NaNoWriMo organization has been making a lot of decisions based on politics, and they’re decisions that I personally think are detrimental to the encouragement of community that is central to what NaNoWriMo has to offer. You’re welcome to agree or disagree with me on that, and through this post I do not mean to advocate for leaving the NaNoWriMo organization or suggest that it’s the best option—I haven’t even decided for myself yet whether I’m staying or leaving. This is simply intended to be a gathering of resources in case anyone has seen NaNoWriMo’s recent changes as deal-breakers, or to provide additional resources for those who are sticking around but maybe want a separate word count tracker or more targeted community. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo Alternatives – Word Count Tracker Options & Community”
Reading for Writing: What Authors Should Read
I’m guessing that everyone here is a reader. I’m also guessing that most of you authors began writing out of a love for reading. When you started, reading was a grand escape and a fun leisure activity, and you read whatever you wanted whenever you wanted, but now that you’re an author you hear people saying “Read these books to improve your craft!” “Don’t read those or you’ll take too much inspiration for your own books and write a copy!” and other dos and don’ts that could make reading less enjoyable. We start reading for writing instead of reading for reading, which has its benefits but also its drawbacks. Here’s what I personally think authors should read (hint: it’s pretty much everything) and why each category is beneficial. Continue reading “Reading for Writing: What Authors Should Read”
5 Fiction Writing Exercises to Stretch Your Skill
This week’s blog tour focus is Carnival Hearts, the second story in the new edition of Short Story Collection vol. 1. Since Carnival Hearts was really a writing exercise that went well, I figured it would be fun to share a handful of fiction writing exercises you can try to get out of your writing comfort zone! I don’t know about you, but my best writing tends to happen when I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone; and even when the end result isn’t great, the process of doing an exercise is almost always a ton of fun. Continue reading “5 Fiction Writing Exercises to Stretch Your Skill”