Jul 21
To fill you in on my novel progress: I’ve been writing chapter 3 for several days now. It’s going slowly, probably because I’ve been writing in small blocks of time. I’m concerned that my writing time will be further diminished now that I am starting a new job and will need to focus a lot of time and energy on that. Free time for writing will have to be scheduled now, that I know for sure, I can’t let my
Jul 6
When I begin to read a novel that has a prologue the first thing I usually think is: Can’t we just skip the prologue and get right to the action?
There have been plenty of times I have wanted to skip prologues because I’ve read so many before that were dull and slow. I never felt like they did anything to bring me into the story that was worth my time reading them. I swore that when I started writing
Jun 21
I’m starting to work on a novel. I’ve tried to do it before and I wrote a lot of words. However, as I look back at those words, they aren’t very good. It was basically me rambling in first person. I’ve learned a lot since then.
The problem now is that when I try to start writing I get more ideas. I have an idea for three novels now. Crazy, I know.
I’d like to have a name for the
Jun 11
I used a random writing prompt I found on a website to inspire this scene. Enjoy.
“Sir? Sir, this man here is Victor Gleason, our Security Director, he’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Good Afternoon Mister…Nicolas, William Nicolas,” Gleason was looking down at a scrap of paper handed to him moments earlier from the store clerk. The name William Nicolas was scrawled in blue ballpoint pen above a series of numbers. He turned his attention back to
Jun 9
I am someone who is constantly looking for writing contests. I scour the web in search of short fiction contests where I can get my work read and judged in the hopes that it will end up being published somewhere.
Writing contests are a great way for writers to gain exposure. This is why I am personally excited about this new start-up website called Fiction or Non.
Here is a brief description from the site itself:
It’s
May 28
A problem that I seem to run into constantly is losing focus on what I want to write. I’ll get an idea that I think is pretty good, I’ll start to write out some notes to get started, then I get another idea which I think is better than the original one and lose focus.
Isn’t it funny how it always seems like the new idea that comes into your mind is so much better than whatever it is
May 27
This is a story I wrote for the Your Story contest for Writer’s Digest magazine. It didn’t make the cut into the top 5 so I’m now posting it here. The story was inspired by the following prompt which they provided. Enjoy.
Prompt: You wake up to find a dead body on the floor—and a bloody knife in your hands.
You can’t remember exactly what happened, so you piece together the clues.
There was an icy quality to
May 7
I entered the recent flash fiction contest at Fiction for Dessert and was selected as an honorable mention. This was incredibly exciting for me as someone who has recently started writing again. It was a great confidence boost for me and having real writers vote for my work gives me a sense of validation. Who knows, maybe I really can write afterall.
Here’s a link directly to my story for you to read.
Enjoy!
May 6
I wrote this story a few weeks ago to break out of my writing slump that lasted for four years. Despite how awkward I felt trying to write it, it turned out to be really good practice. Hope you enjoy.
Clinton Holly stared at the tray of overcooked, processed, questionably nutritious cafeteria food in front of him and asked himself, am I gay? He knew that he wasn’t gay. Well, he was mostly certain that he wasn’t gay. Though it was possible that he was gay and didn’t exactly know what being gay felt like. Clinton couldn’t help wondering if being told daily that he is gay meant that someone saw something he didn’t. Or, if just having it spoken and thought of every day meant that it could come true. His mom tended to believe in the possibilities of the latter.
May 6
When it comes to anything related to the web I look at it through the eyes of a website designer. For me to have my own personal blog has been a struggle between the writer in me and the visual designer in me.
The writer said, “Just start writing and get your words out. Don’t worry about what the website looks like.”
The designer in me raised one eyebrow, stared directly into my soul, and said, “You know that you need to create a custom design for your blog and have it looking beautiful before you even think about writing anything.”
So like I said, it was a struggle…