Book Review // Illuminae
The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. With enemy fire […]
Category Archives: writing
Thinking Paper
There are a thousand different ways to write a novel, or any other piece of fiction, and I want to try every one of them until I find the one […]
On Not Having Done NaNoWriMo
This year was my first year since finding out about NaNoWriMo that I haven’t done it. And it’s an odd feeling. Most of what I wanted to say in this post […]
I Don’t Feel Like NaNoWriMo
To whom it may concern, NaNoWriMo-wise: About a month ago, do you remember me saying that I might not be doing NaNoWriMo this year but it’s still subject to change? Well, […]
Winning Camp NaNoWriMo… FOR THE TENTH TIME
If I’m not very much mistaken, this year’s Camp NaNoWriMo marks my tenth “win” in the NaNoWriMo program. Yet… in my entire three years with the program, I have only produced […]
YOU ARE NOT ME, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY BRAIN // Or, When Characters Are Annoying
Sometimes, I just want to walk up my MC and go BECAUSE I LITERALLY HAVE NO IDEA WHO THIS PERSON IN MY BRAIN IS OR WHAT THEY WANT FROM ME. One […]
I Haven’t Been Writing
I haven’t been writing recently. Wow, it feels good to say that. It’s a fact, though. I have stories in my head, and they’re swirling around, and begging to be written […]
Wonder
Sometimes, I wonder. I wonder about my future. My past. How my life would be different if things had not happened the way they happened. I wonder about my books, my […]
The 16th WriMo Games
Good morning, friends! (Or afternoon, or evening, or middle-of-the-night-chocolate-eating hour… whatever time it is when you’re reading this post, I won’t judge you.) Welcome to the Fourth and Final Week of […]
Writing Revelations and SSP + The 62 Page Test
Hello, fellow WriMos! It’s week three! Pat yourself on the back. If you’ve gotten even 1,000 words down, you deserve it. Writing is a hard business. This week, I want […]
The Week Of Judgement
Happy Official Second Week of NaNoWriMo! Feeling the drag? I am. This is the point at which the glorious feeling of updating your word-count finally wears off, and, as the weather […]
PlaNo-WriMo | Error 404: Plan Not Found
Welcome to my last post of PlaNo-WriMo! I’m so excited for NaNoWriMo to begin. 😀 Lucky for us, it begins on Friday this year, so after we’re all done Trick-Or-Treating so […]
PlaNo-WriMo | Can I Get A Large Order Of “Time,” Please?
Hello and good weekday to you! Yes, I am alive. Sadly, as you may have noticed, I did not post my book haul post on Sunday. Nor did I post for […]
PlaNo-WriMo | Please, Do Not Feed the Plot Bunnies
Hey guys! Welcome to PlaNo-WriMo. For the last three weeks of October, I’m going to be publishing one post a week on developing the ideas of plot and characterization that many of […]
Is NaNoWriMo Right For Me?
There will come a time for all of us when things just aren’t right for us. For those of you that don’t know, November is National Novel Writing Month,or NaNoWriMo (although […]
What Professor McGonagall Taught Me
I am a writer. The statement should make me feel proud. Yet, every time I am asked what I like to do, I always find myself hesitating. I finally blurt out, “I […]
ISWG | The Fork in the Road
ISWG: I’m walking through Writing Forest, on a straight, forward dirt path. It’s rocky at times, and steep and treacherous […]
Guest Post | Where Will You Be In Three Years?
Happy 4th of July! Today I have a very special guest post for you, from Morgan Hegarty, who blogs over at Teenage Enthusiasm. I am very excited to have her […]
Character Issues (See My Pun There?)
They say the characters are what drive the story. The characters are the ones you fall in love with, who you know so well you can finish their sentences for them. […]
Why Writing is Like Watering Your Plants
One of the reasons I love writing so much is because it is so diverse. There are millions of stories out there, little ideas, growing out of author’s minds through the […]
In Which I Edit My Manuscript | Chapter 3
My very good reason for why I haven’t been editing for the past month? It turns out that it is very scary to edit a novel. I edited my novel’s prologue […]
The Stories of Tomorrow
Dear Future Me, You probably don’t know this, but as I am writing this letter, it is Thursday, June 5th, 2014. You We? I? may not consider this a big accomplishment […]
No, You May NOT Read My Novel
I try to keep my writing a secret in real life. Other than the occasional contest win or the very rare writing buddy, my friends are really not aware that I […]
Wishing You a Wonderfully Ridiculous Towel Day 2014
My favorite holiday of the year is not Christmas. It is not Easter. No, it is not even the delightfully beautiful day of Halloween. My science-fiction loving side does not […]
Goodbye, Summer. Goodbye, Snow.
Today, I walked across the street, and, for the first time, felt the need to pick a plum from the wild-growing plum tree there. This may not really seem to be […]
In Which I Edit My Manuscript | Chapter 1
I actually finished editing Chapter 1 of my manuscript a while ago, but it’s a pretty long chapter, so I’ve been lazy typing it up. I’m still on my “Alpha” round […]
In Which I Edit My Manuscript | Prologue
So I finished my novel. Now the hard part’s done, right? WRONG. That’s what I thought, too, until I actually finished my novel. And then I realized I had to go […]
A Piece of Writing Motivation for the Procrastinating Writer: WriMo Edition
Life gets in the way of things. It’s a fact of life, accepted by all, loathed by many. Life gets in the way of watching that Doctor Who marathon you’ve […]
Welcome to Camp
NaNoWriMo has always been something I loved. Writing non-stop for one crazy month of the year? Who could resist? I definitely can’t. I’ve come back year after year, pushed to write […]
Book Review | Great Expectations 4 Stars
It’s Victorian-era England. Pip is just a simple forge boy chosen to entertain rich Miss Havisham and her beautiful adopted daughter, Estella. Though he finds himself falling for Estella, Pip […]
Book Review | Divergent 3.5 Stars
In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago, life is split into five factions. When Beatrice is sixteen, she must choose a faction forever. Should she stay with her family, or should she […]
And the Plot Begins…
Two years after the idea for my novel was born into a page-long seedling, I have reached the height of the plot at 56,000 words. And let me tell you. […]
March Madness
I haven’t worked on my novel in a while. Earnestly, I mean. Not just jotting down a sentence or two, but actually working on it, trying to see where it’s […]
The Art of Not Writing
The height of my blog’s popularity was in December and November, where I posted on this blog nearly every day… And more importantly wrote parts of my novel every day. […]
YA Plot: Getting Rid of Parents
Spoilers for plot of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, I Am Number Four, and Divergent. Don’t read if you are planning on reading/are partway through reading one of these books […]
Paranoia: Posting Writing Online
I often make references to the fact that I love to write, but yet I’ve barely posted any of my work on this blog, or indeed nearly anywhere else online. […]
On Finishing Novels
PART ONE: HITTING 50K IN (APPROX.) 1,000 DAYS The goal of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. I wrote […]
Hitting 100 Pages
Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day. — A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh Wow… hitting 100 pages has been an amazing three-year journey for me and my […]
Hang On… Did You Just Say TOWEL DAY?!
TOWEL DAY It has recently come to my attention that there is a holiday called Towel Day. No, I’m not joking. It’s a real holiday. If you’ve ever read Douglas Adams’s […]
My Thoughts on the Fault in Our Stars
ALERT: SPOILERS!!! (for both Allegiant and The Fault in Our Stars) So, I’ll say it again, just in case you didn’t notice it in HUGE FONT right above this image: SPOILERS. AHEAD. WILL. RUIN. THE. BOOK. […]
NaNoWriMo, Day 24
National Novel Writing Month, Day 24. What a thrill ride. On Day 21, I had 31,762 words. Six minutes ago (it’s 12:06 AM right now) I hit the 38,298 word […]
“I Only Write it, I Don’t Have to Analyze It!”
I only write it, I don’t have to analyze it!” As a writer, I feel like I’ve had to say that a million times. Every time I write a poem, […]
Photography, Traveling, and Dogs
WARNING: This will be a long post. Before I start posting about my experiences, I thought I’d start by writing a blog post about each of my hobbies. These include […]
How I Write
Okay, so I know I said I’d only do ONE post on my writing, but I found this on my old blog and felt compelled to publish it here. A […]
The Bindi Biographies, Part II: Barks and Boredom
It’s road tripping season in our family, and, of course, for our dog! This year, it’s a five-hour-trip—and just to the first stop—and our Bindi is not happy about […]
The Bindi Biographies, Part I: Of Sleep and Squirrels
Every so often, our dog will go outside, bark at some neighborhood squirrels for a while, and then settle down on the mahogany-colored deck, whining in sadness. She seems to […]
Books and Bark 