First, let's define some terms. Draft Zero is the very first draft, the one you don't dare show anyone because even you haven't read it yet. You don't know what's in there. You don't know if it even tells a complete story yet. The First Draft comes aft ...
There are some things I'm good at organizing, like my writing files or my calendar. There are some things I'm downright terrible at organizing and always have been. I was the kid whose desk and floor were always covered in mess. (Creative mess!) Toys, ...
2017 was not a good National Novel Writing Month for me. Gearing Up Only a few months before November I was hit with an idea, an idea I loved and could foresee growing into something awesome. It was a YA dystopia inspired by some gruesome things but it ...
To start, there's the official definition: Project management is the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time. The primary ...
Everybody's been talking about bullet journals, how great they are, how they've changed people's lives, how fun and pretty they are. But did you know that we as writers can also use them? There are specific benefits to using a bullet journal specifically ...
Oh, the Kidlit You'll Write! is my column over at DIY MFA. Here's the latest! Say you have a novel that stars a main character between the ages of 17 and 19, right on the cusp of adulthood. How do you pitch or market it, as Young Adult or Adult? Th ...
A short, powerful, reusable online course that will help you prepare for NaNoWriMo! Every year I see writers who either forget about National Novel Writing Month until two months or less before November, or who know it's coming but keep putting off the ...
As you might've gathered by now, I have Celiac which means I'm one of those gluten free people, and not by choice. I also have food allergies, especially to egg and soy, which are key when substituting for wheat. This has forced me to get creative with co ...
You've decided you want to join a writing group. But what kind of writing group? There are so many combinations out there! Online or in-person, critique or support, small or large—and in what combination? The possibilities are endless! Here's a brief sum ...
(and people short on time, like me) Bullet journals are all the rage. Basically, a bullet journal is a DIY planner. You take a blank notebook and set it up the way you want, and use it to track anything from appointments to daily habits. It's a way of ...
I'm probably the last to the "Year in Review" party, but I have a good excuse! The mountain behind my house was on fire. Literally. See, where we live is very dry and fireworks are banned in the entire municipality. But, someone decided to celebrate the ...
It's nearly that time again: National Novel Writing Month. Every November I and thousands of other writers challenge ourselves to write 50,000 words in just 30 days. It's a big goal, and it's really hard, and it's a lot of fun. It's also the way I draft b ...
It's a question that gets asked a lot in writing circles, and the answers vary depending on who you ask. I know writers who doubt their decision both ways—whether they decided to get an MFA or not. Articles and whole books have been written about whether ...
It's finally here! THE MONSTER NOVEL STRUCTURE WORKBOOK is available for pre-order, releasing on September 15, 2018! Beta readers agree, this book will change the way you novel. “I feel like I've won the novel-writing lottery! For the first time I fee ...
In October Author Mentor Match (AMM) will open to submissions from YA and MG writers! The program matches unagented writers with published and pre-published author mentors who help with revision and career strategy. To learn more about AMM, like how it w ...
A novel synopsis is a summary of the major events of a novel. It retells the story in a condensed form so that a reader can get the gist of the book without having to read the whole thing. If you plan to query your novel you'd best prepare a synopsis a ...
I've used all kinds of tools to track things across the length of a manuscript. I've used giant pieces of paper, spreadsheets, and meta-data. But I think I'm in love with this one: Aeon Timeline 2. First, let me explain what I'm tracking and why. I hav ...
I do a lot of cooking. Since moving to South Africa I've taken on the role of chef so my folks can focus on other things, like my mother's health. (She's doing well, on her last stretch of treatment that should put her on a good track for the foreseeable ...
Seeing as I love spreadsheets, are you surprised that I keep my digital files relatively well-ordered? I just saw yet another post from someone lamenting that she's working on Draft Number "FinalNoReallyThisTimeForSureIMeanItEtc" for the millionth time. ...
This is the last blog post to go out to my mailing list as a newsletter-type-entry. Why? Because I've done some research and found that a newsletter--emails written specifically to be sent as a newsletter--are more popular than blog posts. Initially I tho ...
At some point in your writing career you're going to be given an edit letter. Edit letters are what a publisher, editor, agent, or even a critique partner or beta reader, give you in addition to any notes they've made on the manuscript itself. It's the pr ...
There's a lot of discussion these days about trigger warnings and how they should be handled. I don't have any triggers, but I know some wonderful people who do. (Just like racism and homophobia, being a jerk can be cured by getting to know people.) I ha ...
Things haven't exactly gone as predicted this year. My habit, in years past, has been to spend the whole summer before NaNo preparing. I outline the hell out of it, which frees my mind up from worrying about plot to concentrate on prose. This year I coul ...
I'm impatient to get going this year. I mean, there's always some impatience going in, but this year feels stronger than in the past. It's a mixture of excitement and anxiety. And just plain, "But I wanna!" I realize that I didn't actually blog about NaN ...
