NaNoWriMo Countdown!! – 7 More Days!!

Now that you have figured out what type of story you want to write, how much prep should you do? This year my novel is loosely based on a real life person, a woman in the Spanish War who lost her fiancee and became a bandit. My heroine lives in a fantasy world but there … Read more

Writing as a spectator sport

Joshua Cohen wrote a novel with the Internet reading over his shoulder “Viewers at PCKWCK.com could comment, “heart” text as on Periscope, answer survey questions, and watch a tiny livestream camera of Joshua Cohen as he wrote and edited his story, a cigarette usually dangling out of his mouth—Hunter S. Thompson living in a Brooklyn … Read more

NaNoWriMo Countdown!! – 9 More Days!!

What to write about… They say to write about what you know. Since my favorite genres are Science Fiction and Fantasy, that is what I usually choose to write. Really, the choice is up to you. Just make sure that you will have enough material to complete 10K words. At least with the fiction genres … Read more

NaNoWriMo Countdown!! – 10 More Days!!

On writing tools…. One NaNoWriMo years ago, I went to a group write-in and saw someone lugging around a really awesome old keyed typewriter as their tool of preference for writing. Awesomely cool, but heavy.  A few like to hand write their novels, and then scan their notes in to get their final count. But … Read more

NaNoWriMo Countdown!! – 11 More Days!!

The goal of NaNoWriMo is 10K words in the month of November. This is a solid but manageable task. So this is a good time to start gathering the support of family and friends. Not only does this hold you accountable but you get your very own cheer team and people will understand when you … Read more

NaNoWriMo Countdown!! – 12 More Days!!

Twelve more days until National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)!! If you are unfamiliar with the program, you can check out their site, but the basic idea is to just let the words flow to the count of 10,000 in the month of November. You get to hang out with a bunch of cool people, work … Read more

Success through peer review

Smithsonian Magazine has a piece on how author Andy Weir used the “ask the audience” option to perfect his book, The Martian. Now turned into a blockbuster movie with Matt Damon. “So how did a software engineer’s thought experiment, originally posted for free online, explode into a literary and cinematic blockbuster? One possible answer may … Read more