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Writing Forward

December News and AnnouncementsYesterday

At long last the final month of the year has arrived and for many of you, it has arrived in all its snowy glory. For me, it’s just overcast, cold, and drizzly. That’s what we get in California where white Christmases are the stuff of fairy tales and far-off worlds.

The NaNoWriMo Experience is Over

You know how a lot of published authors say things like “Write an outline? Never! Then I’d know what was going to happen and I wouldn’t bother writing the story to find out.” Well, they’re right.

I started out with three characters and a very vague scenario. No plot, no outline, no note cards. It grew into a complex, multifaceted mess of a novel. That’s right, it’s a mess, but it’s my mess and I’m mighty proud of it.

About a third of the way in, I wrote about what it was like the best way I knew how in the post How to Write a Novel, and as long as my muse isn’t dead now that I’ve flogged her with 50,186 words, I’ll wrap up part two of that later this week.

I will say this: it was a magical experience. If you’ve contemplated NaNoWr

How to Write a NovelNovember 24

It starts with a declaration. You make it to yourself or maybe to someone else. You say, “I’m going to write a novel,” and add it to your lifelong to do list. For years, it sits there, tucked between “plant a tree” and “jump out of an airplane.” You go about your life. Then one day, your novel’s number comes up.

You’re nervous, excited, and just a little bit scared. What if the plot sucks? What if it’s a big hit? You start dreaming about agents and publishers. You try not to think about Oprah, but sometimes you wonder what it would be like, sitting in the chair next to her, talking about how yes, it’s true, you wrote the first draft in 30 days.

No time for idle dreams, you get focused and concentrate on your characters. They’re starting to take form, one by one. They’ve got names and personalities, talents and obstacles that they need to overcome. They’re interacting, forming relationships and you feel like some kind of puppetmaster tweaking their strings until they take shape and start to come alive.

At first, there’s no plot. Just a bunch of half-baked scenes and situations. Your mind dances w

How to Write a Complex Villian (Writing Exercise)November 14

When it comes to writing fiction, we each have our own unique challenges. For some of us, it’s hard to write realistic dialog. For others, it’s a struggle coming up with names for our characters.

Maybe you’re like me, and find it difficult to write a really good villain. I mean - a really bad villain. Or even just a pretty bad nemesis.

The funny thing about our writing weaknesses is that sometimes all we have to do is identify them and suddenly we start coming up with tons of solutions.

That’s what happened to me about two years ago, when I realized that I was having trouble writing a nemesis for my main characters. Time and time again, it was one of the key elements that was missing from the stories I wrote.

Once I noticed this pattern, I started seeing villains all around me - as if merely noticing their absence from my writing made them suddenly appear in my everyday life. A friend would forget to call me back and she’d become a self-absorbed boss who neglected and overworked her employees. My housemate would leave the milk out and suddenly he was a freeloading couch-surfer taking advantage of all his fri

10 Tips to Improve Your Fiction Writing SkillsNovember 12

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Writing fiction, whether short or long, can be a very trying experience indeed.  So many writers of fiction have different processes for achieving their writing goals that it’s hard to sift through what works and what doesn’t.

Writing is a process that requires skill, determination, adaptability, and plenty of time.  Here are some suggestions for improving your fiction writing skills, gleaned from trial and error over time.

1. Start With a Seed

Some great fiction books are simply a product of asking the question, “What if…?”  Starting a new work of fiction requires just a small seed to get you going.  Beginning without too much baggage can really help get the ball rolling.

Let the Story Tell Itself

Think of yourself as a medium, or a vehicle, for a story that wants to be told.  You may have some idea about where things are going, but don’t create too many constraints for yourself.  The story will unfold if you are ready to work hard on keeping up with what it has to say.

Use Realistic Characters and Dialogue

This is acc

Hot off the Press!November 10

There’s so much news this week, I can barely keep up with it all. NaNoWriMo is well underway and thousands of writers are eagerly pecking away at their novels. New websites are popping up along with exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs. It’s hard to know where to begin, so I’ll start right here at home, and announce the launch of my new website.

Scribizzy - Web Content Writing

I’ve known for quite some time that I would launch a new site specializing in web content writing. This is work that I enjoy immensely and I feel like I’m really good at it too. Now that I’ve been immersed in the world of freelancing for over a year, I felt it was time to truly establish my services as a bona fide business. Hell, call me an entrepreneur.

Scribizzy offers web content writing and r