I have written before about the nice little program Plume Creator, and how it can be very helpful for organizing a large project and keeping on track. My post on the topic can be found HERE. Plume Creator helped me incalculably to finish my first book. I used it to keep track of chapters, scenes, … Continue reading Writing Tools: Write Monkey
Tag: writing tools
Share: The Bus Test
Here is a great tool for writers: the bus test. It is a quirky way to measure the value and emotional depth of your characters. I do not agree that a reader has to "become" a character. In fact I find that idea preposterous in most cases, since fictional characters are by their very nature … Continue reading Share: The Bus Test
Seeing Red
Added status counts to my publishing spreadsheet today (Excel is so useful!). Oh boy, that's a lot of red! But I'm not letting that slow me down. I just got a new acceptance letter today, recently got a request for a rewrite, and have two other stories in the final round of selection at their respective … Continue reading Seeing Red
Revising the Story Tracker
Professional writing is hard. Over the past few months, I have had to rein in my expectations. It takes a lot longer to get an answer from publishers than I expected. And rejection is a much more common result. The long duration of the publishing process makes it all the more important to have some … Continue reading Revising the Story Tracker
What’s Your Crisis? – The Essential Component of a Short Story
The recipe for a short story is so simple, yet it is one of the hardest things to craft well. There are only two essential ingredients for a story, a well-developed character and a crisis. Within the word limit of your tale, you must make us understand your character, give him or her an issue … Continue reading What’s Your Crisis? – The Essential Component of a Short Story
More on First-Person Narrators
Bards and Sages: First-Person Narrative Pitfalls Here is another interesting discussion on the problems with first-person narrators. However, I personally disagree with the last point. There is no necessity that the first-person narrator must have a logical means to deliver the story to the reader. That is wholly unnecessary meta-thinking. The story is not connected … Continue reading More on First-Person Narrators
Narrative Perspective: 3rd Person Pure Limited or Limited Omniscient
I had another good discussion with my editor as we reviewed his comments on my book manuscript. Another interesting, you-know-it-but-don't-realize-it topic came up: narrative perspective. I generally write in third-person. It's standard form for fantasy, though less for sci-fi. I find most first-person writing to be lazy. It goes back to the age-old adage "show … Continue reading Narrative Perspective: 3rd Person Pure Limited or Limited Omniscient
Keeping Track of Submissions
Any good writer knows it takes a lot of work, and many attempts, to get published. I am relatively new to professional fiction writing, but I have started to develop systems to make the process run more smoothly. Below is my method for keeping track of everything. My experience as a staff NCO in the … Continue reading Keeping Track of Submissions
The Continent of ESSARSEA
I'll be the first to admit I am not very artsy. I can draw stickmen, if I really put my mind to it. Which makes simplified tools, such as the Inkarnate map maker, so incredible to me. I was hesitant to use maps early on in my story planning, but I have found it … Continue reading The Continent of ESSARSEA
Tools: Plume Creator
I started this blog while in the middle of writing my first book. The tool I was using to write that book was the awesome, open-source Plume Creator. This program offers a simple way to organize your writing. You can organize by books, acts, chapter and scenes (of course you can rename these as you … Continue reading Tools: Plume Creator
JM Williams 