I went to the first class of English 318 yesterday, and the lecture got me to thinking about my mid- to long-term future as a writer. Brandon spent most of the period organizing the class, which was made doubly difficult by the ridiculously small classroom size. I swear, bureaucracies exist only to make life difficult. … Continue reading Some thoughts on the future
Tag: writing advice
Braving the unexpected rough spots
Right now, I’m going through this unexpected rough spot in my novel, where I know what’s supposed to happen (or at least I have enough of an idea to wing it fairly well), but the writing just isn’t coming. This happens every time I hit the two thirds mark, and it really sucks. Currently, I’m… Continue reading Braving the unexpected rough spots
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
“I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one. Or at least as close as we’re goign to get. “That’s what you said about the brother.” “The brother tested out impossible. For other reasons. Nothing to do with his ability.” “Same with the sister. And there are… Continue reading Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Thoughts on writing characters
A couple months ago, I was listening to one of my personal recordings of Brandon Sanderson’s English 318 lectures from last year’s class. The topic was writing characters. Brandon outlined several techniques for making characters sympathetic. He also outlined how to round them out: give them flaws and handicaps, as well as little quirks to… Continue reading Thoughts on writing characters
Thank you readers
I appreciate my first readers very much, even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts. Today I got the comments back from a longtime Quarkie friend on Genesis Earth, and she told me that, in her opinion, the book still needs a lot of work. However, she made it very clear when (and why) she was bored,… Continue reading Thank you readers
Heaven’s library
2,943 words today, even though today was the first day of Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers. I’ve reached the major climax of the book–the moment I’ve been replaying over and over in my head. Perhaps this novel is not as bad as I’d thought–perhaps I can pull this off. The current incarnation is terrible,… Continue reading Heaven’s library
…and they all lived evily ever after.
Today we had a quark writing group party, and it was lots of fun! We all went up to drek‘s new house, up in Draper, and read some of our really old, really bad first attempts at writing stories. Good times! Drek, Nick, lexish, slipperyjim, jakeson, gamila, aneeka, and one of my friends from the… Continue reading …and they all lived evily ever after.