The National Novel Writing Month, often shortened to NaNoWriMo, is the annual novel writing challenge of writing 50k words within the month of November. Of course, for some, this can be a bit of an impossibility as they don’t have that luxury of time or they can’t reach the word count easily in a month. If NaNoWriMo is too much of a stretch for you, then you might want to look into Camp...
You know what Bukowski said about writing, don’t you? If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your typewriter searching for words, don’t do it. Thankfully, we now have a system to help our creative juices flow with its top-notch functionality, and no it’s not confusing or glitchy like Scrivener. Presenting to you a scrivener alternative that will turn...
You’ve finally gotten the resolve to write a book. After mulling over it for days and nights, you’ve decided to put your thoughts into paper and become the author that you envision yourself to be. However, this is easier said than done. Writing a book is a monumental task, perhaps to the point that it can force you to change your lifestyle. It’s no wonder that many people ask how to write a...
A biography can be deceptively easy to write — after all, you just need to narrate how a person lived their life, right? However, when you start to pull out pen and paper and start to write, you’d run into multiple roadblocks. What information should I include? How specific should this biography be? How do I break a biography into logical sections? As one of the more common pieces that...
Villains bear as much importance as your protagonists. For many stories, the protagonist going against the villain drives the plot forward, and their interactions often define the climax of a story. It’s not ill-advised to even write the villain first before the protagonist — they are the ones who will make your protagonist heroic, after all. Writing fantasy villains can be as simple...
Writing a novel is a massive undertaking that should not be underestimated. We’re talking about a piece of literature that can easily span 60,000 to 100,000 words borne out of a person’s imagination and creativity (except nonfiction, of course, but the amount of creativity poured into it is not negligible, nonetheless). As an up-and-coming author, there are a lot of considerations that you might...
Characters are, quite literally, the life of any story: they often drive the plot and progress the story. Well-written characters are one of the most important ingredients to any good story, and so it’s important to understand what makes a character well-written. One fundamental aspect of characterization that you need to know is the amount of change that a character undergoes for the...
A writer should know how to wield their gift of words well, from the structure to the many types of writing they should use. Understanding the latter is crucial, since it often dictates how you would go around with the use of words, figures of speech, tone, and other critical components of writing. Today, let’s explore the four main writing styles and learn what skills and aspects you should know...
Traveling is a great way for writers to expand their horizons and enrich their worldviews. Getting away from your monotonous and repetitive lifestyle can drive your creative juices to overdrive, and inspiration sparks more in places you’ve never seen before. The experiences and insights that you can gain from a place that’s not your home are invaluable to writers, since you cannot get them...
Nothing is more appealing to romance readers than it’s largest subgenre – contemporary romance. However, this does not make your job as a writer easier. Instead, this poses a large challenge to you: how do you make your contemporary romance worthy to be read among the vast sea of books in that subgenre? Here are some tips that should help your novel stand above the rest. Know your genre...