November was a kind of tipping point for me, although what it is exactly that I tipped between, I’m not sure. It feels like I tipped between “not confident” and “confident” on a personal level, as in, “She is a confident person.” But where that came from or what it means, I don’t know. It’s probably […]
A selection of the best books I read in November, which, admittedly, still isn’t done yet but close enough: Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nahisi Coates. A series of essays, framed as a letter written to his son, on the poisonous Dream of a white America. Just amazing. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan.
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I was eating a bunch of clementines the other day, and one of them smelled off. Last year, I got a bag of clementines with a number of fruits that were just bad. Eventually I ditched the whole bag–well, first I shoved it in the fridge and pretended it wasn’t there for a month. It
I asked on Facebook what nonfiction books they would recommend for becoming a better citizen of the world/universe. It sounded like a fun thing to ask; I like to ask for recommendations. Over a hundred and forty books later… Please note that I am not a trained bibliographer and you’re lucky you’re not just getting
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Yesterday’s post, by the way. Far be it from me to be like, “Oh, writing is easy, you can do it in these six easy steps” or “every first draft is a good first draft.” You can’t and they aren’t. Not even if you make the condition that every draft can be fixed–because that’s not
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I’m just going to say it. Not all first drafts suck. But you’re never going to write a first draft that doesn’t suck if you believe otherwise.
A quick POV edit: In short, she thought he was lying. In short, he was probably lying. They mean the same thing. But the first one comes from outside “her” head. The second one is what “she” is more likely to think. “He’s probably lying,” she thought. Versus “I thought he was lying,” she thought.
Quick POV Edit to Consider Read More »
Something I’m exhausted of lately: The kind of drama that comes from people who want more from you than they’re willing to give. Sometimes that drama comes in very polite packages, and it’s only when you step back can you assess what’s not being done or said and strip the message down to its core
…Treat every success in your fiction like it’s a clue. In other words, hide the holy shit out of it. Hide it in plain sight. Break away the second before the character succeeds, and show them after a time jump, struggling on the next thing. Show the bad guys flipping every success on its head.
And Important Note on Success in Fiction… Read More »
Okay, harsh truth time. Not the harshest of the harsh truths that I’ve ever laid down, but still pretty harsh. There’s a “thing” that a lot of writers go through. A LOT A LOT. I do this and have been doing this for years, although I can see the light on the far side of
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