I’ve read quiet a few writing advice books. Most of them agree on one point: As a writer, you have to go to where it hurts. You have to look into those places that make you cringe and wanna look away, you have to take them, write them. Naturally, I hesitate to really plunge into…
Since I started editing my (let’s call it) current draft of my novel, a bunch of characters walked in who weren’t there before. I’m not sure yet if I really need them, but they help me finding the way through the labyrinth of my brain. And my novel. Only problem: Everytime a new character arrives,…
Oh, seriously. Day 3 of CampNaNoWriMo and I’m already out of motivation. Ok, perhaps it’s the lack of sleep (I drifted off around four in the morning). I know perfectly well what I want to write, what I need to write, I just don’t want to…you know what. Maybe it’s only today and tomorrow, everything…
Friedrich Schiller, Preface to The Robbers, 1781 Schiller knew already that there is nothing more boring than a simple all-black-villain. His choice of words may be a bit florid nowadays, but his idea is dead on. Don’t make your villain a flat copy of some random comic baddie. Give him some humanity. Same as the…
Camp NaNoWriMo, day one: I didn’t feel the typical NaNoWriMo-Anticipation yesterday, but I feel it today. I couldn’t sleep, so I read two chapters of my WIP and decided what to change, what to add, what to delete. I may have forgotten what it was, but I trust my brain enough to recognise it again…
Over the last six days, I wrote 3500 words. That’s nothing, since I know I can write 3500 a day. But I’m content. I’m aiming to write at least 300 words a day, because that’s a manageable amount. Not a dreadful mountain that inspires fear and provokes failure. Writing 300 words a day is my…
Well, that’s the question. What should I do? In my previous post, I stated my goal to edit my manuscript that I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2011. There are many holes in that first draft, plot and otherwise. I’m a pantser through and through, and I’m paying for that. I get swamped, I drown in the…
This April, I’m participating in CampNaNoWriMo for the first time. I participated and won in NaNoWriMo twice, but everytime when November was gone, so was my motivation. My goal for Camp is to edit one of my NaNovels. I’m currently at 60K, and I’m planning on bolstering up those plot holes, flat tires and shallow…
