Editing and Book Coaching Services for Speculative Fiction Writers
What’s Your Why? If writing can be so difficult, why bother? Some writers seem to breeze through drafts while others struggle through. I’m the latter type. I parse out words, agonize over plot, and plumb the depths of my character’s motivations. Writing, like many other pursuits worth undertaking, is a journey. But just as it …
What is Show Don’t Tell? Ah, yes, the most overused piece of writing advice out there. But what does “Show Don’t Tell” actually mean? And how can you use this to strengthen your writing? Generally, “telling” is exposition where the reader is told what is happening. The reader knows the facts of what happened …
How to Tighten Your Prose Brevity and clarity often go hand-in-hand. Tightening your prose makes it more readable and provides an immersive experience for your reader. So how do you do this? Choose Strong Verbs Instead of Adverbs In his book On Writing, Stephen King famously said (see what I did there?), “The road to …
What Is NaNoWriMo? NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month (ironically this event is international but that’s beside the point). NaNoWriMo takes place every November and is a creative writing challenge in which writers from all over the world attempt to write a 50,000-word novel in a month. Having participated in NaNoWriMo for the past two …
What is a Live Action Slush? A live action slush is when a section of a writer’s work (typically the opening pages) is read out loud and critiqued immediately. The evaluators tell the author what their impressions would be if they had picked this up out of their slush pile. A ‘slush pile’ is a …
Creative Exhaustion: How to Recover from Burnout The term burnout has always seemed deceptive to me. It provokes imagery of the dying embers of a flame — fading eventually to coals. The term gives the sense that the fire stops. Congratulations you’ve reached the end of your rope! Now you get to rest and recharge …
Giving a Public Reading: Tips from an Introvert A public reading is high on the list of things I’d rather not do. My throat gets tight and my hands get clammy and I talk too fast and I forget to take a breath until I’m running out of air mid-sentence and have to – GASP …
Creative Writing School: Was it Worth It? Since September, I’ve had the opportunity to attend creative writing school through The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University. As this whirlwind of an academic year draws to a close, the question I find myself asking is: Was it worth it? This past year took an incredible amount …
How To Set Up SendFox And Integrate With WordPress This post will provide a step-by-step introduction of how to set up a SendFox email marketing account and integrate it with a WordPress website. I’m no expert at email marketing or WordPress, just another writer who has been through this process. Here’s what I’ve learned! An …
How to Find Time To Write When There’s No Time Left Words flow from my fingertips. The clacking of the keyboard mingles with the jazz drifting through the window from the street below. I print off each chapter I finish and the stack beside me grows more impressive every hour. When I need a break …