Doing A Whedon: When To Kill Off Major Characters
Sometimes, one of the protagonists just has to die. It can be a traumatic thing for readers to go through, especially if the readers associated strongly with the character that gets bumped off. The creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (and Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse), Joss Whedon was notorious for killing off fan favourites, leaving [...]
Five Strategies For Writers to Deal With Rejection and Critique
It’s happened to all of us at some point; you have high hopes for something, so high the air is getting thin up there…and then suddenly your writing is rejected or gets a bad review and your hopes hit the pavement like a rubbish bag full of yoghurt. How you deal with rejection is going [...]
Five Writing Mistakes I Made Yesterday That You Could Learn From
These writing mistakes posts are mostly pointing out things I’ve screwed up awhile ago. Just in case you thought I was done making silly mistakes, I’m here to prove you wrong. Another day has passed and that means I’ve got some more mistakes to use as blog fodder. 1. Spent More Time On Social Media [...]
Five More Writing Mistakes I’ve Made That You Could Learn From
1. Commenting Too Quickly Online: This is something I’ve really had to be careful about, especially recently, and especially on Twitter. It is so easy to rattle out a quick comment you think is a joke, and then really offend someone without even trying. I’ve done it. You’ll do it. It’s just one of [...]
5 Writing Mistakes I’ve Made That You Could Learn From
Skyla Dawn Cameron, saint, author, acquiring editor for Mundania Press and generally awesome person, said some really nice things about me here.* As I said to her on Twitter; it’s nice to be the good example sometimes, instead of the dire warning. I am FAR from perfect. Despite Skyla’s seal of approval, I have made [...]
The Very Basics: Ten Things All Writers Need To Do
I get asked occasionally about where new writers need to start if they’re putting together a career in fiction. Other than telling them that learning the ins and outs of the English language (or whichever language you’re planning to write in) is a plan, I almost always giving them a version of this list. Remember [...]
Do Your Writing Skills Improve Steadily Or In Jumps?
I tend to learn in chunks rather than make slow progressions. It’s like my brain stores up all the learning then drops it on me when I least expect it. At times this has been frustrating, because I’ve tried for, and expected, continuous progress, no matter how slow. So having several months of pain while [...]
How Do You Handle Praise?
***Updated With Winners: Thanks for all your comments folks. In the end I decided to give away three ebooks rather than just the one. I like all of the comments so I ended up drawing two names out of a hat and choosing one because it made me grin. The winners are… Sarah, Nasim and [...]
Side Projects and Avoiding New Project Syndrome
How much time do you spend on side projects? I try to give myself half an hour per day for each side project. This is the only way I’ve ever been able to make progress either on side projects or on each main project. If I don’t have an outlet for the crazed side projects [...]
Ten Reasons I Still Want To Write Despite Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig recently posted about Ten Reasons You Don’t Want To Be A Writer. It’s a very tongue in cheek post, but there’s a serious message in there: are you sure you want to do this? I’m sure…but when I was four my stated career goal was to be a friendly werewolf and a writer. [...]
Follow Andrew
Subscribe to this site's RSS feed.
Recent Posts
Categories
Google Ads
Search This Site
Blogroll
- Agent Nathan Bransford's Blog
- Carrie Heim Binas
- Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog
- Heather W Petty's LiveJournal
- I Should Be Writing
- J A Konrath's "A Newbie's Guide to Publishing"
- Leah Peterson's Blog
- Neil Gaiman's Journal
- Orson Scott Card
- Pip Ballantine
- Regan Leigh
- Scott Sigler
- Sklya Dawn Cameron's Blog
- Stacia Kane's Blog
- Tobias Buckell
- Writer's Remorse
- Writing Excuses
