You’ve written an outline, and things are going great. You are cooking on all burners and the story is flowing—until it isn’t. Maybe, you got a brilliant idea during a chapter, or a character gets rowdy, and takes it over, or—you know how it is. The chapter that is...

One of my favorite benefits of using AI is its ability to gather research information in and ordered list for your consideration.However, you must exercise caution in using this information, as Chat is prone to fudge its results. You should check it against internet sources. Yet, the wealth of...

What’s the biggest obstacle a writer faces? Even if you have outlined your book. Staring at the page for the start of that new chapter. Endlessly. All writers do this—even famous ones. Take, for instance, Sylvia Plath: Sylvia Plath (from The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath) Monday, July 7 (1958):...

Forget the controversy over whether to use AI in your prose. This issue will shake out as writers use AI more and develop best practices in writing fiction with AI. This tool can help you with mundane writing tasks that help to speed up your work without arguments over...

ChatGPT is an amazing tool, but like all resources used for research in your writing, you need to recheck the information it provides. Below is an example of today’s research: Beth: Good morning. How does weightlessness in space feel? ChatGPT: Good morning! Weightlessness in space is a unique and...

The following is from my post on Quora responding to this question: Do writers and authors write out an outline of their novel first? How detailed is the outline? Whether to outline or “pants” (meaning to write by the seat of their pants) is individual to each writer. Some...

Nearly ten years ago, before ChatGPT was a twinkle in its creators’ eyes, in one (nearly finished) novel I wrote, two of my characters created a program they called Timebender they used to predict future events based on information models fed into it to make military and business decisions....

My Fantasy-Writers.org buddies and I enter a writing contest each year called Weird Christmas, run by Craig, who enjoys the strange permutations of the Christmas season. Unfortunately, most of those that entered didn’t make it to the final cut, as what happens in publishing. It’s a very competitive business....

Ask a Writer Asked and answered on Quora. The Original Question: Is it worth to be an author? It’s the best thing ever, but not for the reasons you think. 1) Your time is your own. You can wake up when you want to, sleep when it suits you,...

Even if you despise outlining, give it a shot. A few hours of outlining with save days of beating your head on your laptop. Trust the woman that writes novels for a living on a deadline. An outline will give you a clearer idea of where your characters are...