Sometimes writers fall into trappings of their own enthusiasm (see also: madness). With this being something like my seventh major re-write of Planes Shifter, I’m trying not to make the same mistakes as my last draft. If I’m going to …
Hitting The Wall
At the weekend, I analysed my novel and found that I had 18 subplots: which explains why I’ve had to do so many editing “passes.” Even 250k epics don’t have 18 subplots in the first 100k – Which is why …
Balancing Learning: Writing versus Studying Writing
Since 2009, I have started eight novels and two novellas. I have finished drafts of five of them. Three I will never look at again (not to edit or salvage, anyway — maybe to learn from them). In terms of major …
An Example of Tension
This week, my other half introduced me to the Batman Movies. *Spoiler Alert* In The Dark Knight Rises, there is a scare that no one must cross this particular bridge. We’ve been following Police Officer Blake, who knows that irrespective …
Resilience: My Side Project for 2014
They say that when you finish a draft, you should leave it for a few weeks; or a few months if possible. It’s even better if you can throw yourself into a new project in that time – to get …
Tracking my Wordcount
Welcome to 2014. One of my goals for this year is to track how much I write. I’m vaguely aiming to continue meeting my WriteChain goal of 429 words a day (3,000 a week), but mostly, I want to know …