The Craft of #Writing: #Pantsing versus #Outlining

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...

Relax—#ChatGPT will not steal our #writing jobs

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....

Weird Christmas 2022

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: Is It Worth It To Be One?

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,...

#NaNoWriMo: Day 2—How to De-Angst Novel #Writing

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...

The Craft of #Writing: The Workbook Productivity Hack

One of my writing friends on FWO asked me to write about I how I organize my work so that I’m productive in my ghostwriting business. Everyone has their own writing process. What works for me may not work for you. But I’m glad to share my tools to...

The craft of #writing: ratcheting chapter tension

Like a pinball, your story bounces around in your head, hitting your occipital lobe, hippocampus, and the front of your brain, lighting them all up with the act of creation. If you are a master writer, you light up the caudate nucleus, which handles skills gained over time. Creating...

Wordsmithery: ignite your #writing with best-selling-author metrics

Having worked as a ghostwriter for eight years, writing nearly every day while working quickly and efficiently sparked my need to develop ninja wordsmithing skills. And for this, I turned to machine-editing tools. When I first started, I suffered some backlash from my writing friends. The common sentiment was...

#Writing style: adverbs to modify “said”?

(Beth Turnage) A Quoran posted this question: What is wrong with using an adverb to modify the word “said”? And here is my take: This is an offshoot of “showing vs. telling.” When you use an adverb you are “telling.” “Telling” is a less immersive reading experience, and often...