On Writer’s Retreats: Enforced Focus
This weekend my husband and I are travelling. There’s an event he’s attending Saturday morning, and because the location is 150 miles away, we’re making a weekend of it. I […]
Category Archives: Writing Process – Preparing
NaNoWriMo 2017 :: Preparations
I’ve taken part in seven National Novel Writing Month‘s across eight years. This year, I’m focusing on a new project, which I’m currently fleshing out. That’s the joy of October: […]
A Summer Writing Update
One of the most common questions new writers ask focuses on the ‘best‘ way to write. Whether this is a question of routines or order or projects, or even the […]
Understanding Your Character with CBT
For my dayjob, I work in the mental health sector, and the main framework of the support my company provides is a strategy based on CBT, which stands for “Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.” […]
Drafting a Story: Early Steps
Back in March, I had a tiny idea sprouting. This concept of a character and a setting; the two things clashing, began to take form. I wrote a few scenes-snippets to […]
Preparing to Write a Novel: From Seeds to Sprouts
During a recent #storycrafter session on developing ideas into fully fledged plots, I had a few questions about my process. As twitter is a limited format for explaining details, I thought […]
Morning Reflections on Not Writing
I haven’t been writing this month. In the last twenty-four days, I have written 103 words. 62 on an old story I planned to pick up, and the rest on a […]
Dissecting Stories: Plot Twists
This weekend my partner introduced me to the Anime series “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.” Across three days, we watched the 64 episodes with me asking extra questions on occasion to ensure I’d understood the […]
Reader Question :: “How much planning do you do before beginning the first draft?”
“How much planning or plotting do you do before beginning the first draft?” – Question by Cheyenne Trumbo I think this is a question many writers ask of each other. In a […]
FC14 Panel: Worldbuilding Workshop
10am Sunday morning brought us a workshop led by Tom Pollock and Kate Elliot, focused on worldbuilding. Much like at WFC13, the worldbuilding panel was the one I wrote the […]
