This week, I’m in the first week of Write Better-Faster 101, which is a deep dive into how strengths play into writing. Which, curiously, can include what goes in the writing.

Mostly, it’s been identifying where your problems are… just thinking about them. Mine, hands down, is getting a book to novel length. In the days when I wanted to traditional publish, this seemed like a goalpost out of reach. I didn’t understand how other writers could come up with a book that blew past 100K when I was just hitting 20K.

I debated at one point if I should just go to short stories because I couldn’t write novels. But it felt like the wrong reason to do that. If I wrote short stories, it should be because I enjoyed writing short stories, not because I couldn’t write long enough books. The same thing applies to novellas.

So we’ll see where that one takes me.

Superhero Vs. Superhero

This is slow going, but not a slog. I’m having to stop and think about issues that I think I would have skipped before when I was doing the “Just sit down and write. It’s that simple” method. By issues, I mean if the character does X, what happens? But what if she does Y instead?

These don’t always occur to me at the first blush of the blank page. I suppose that’s like marinating a piece of chicken. Sometimes, I’ve had to walk around and think a bit before writing (hard now. It’s gotten cold again). But sometimes, as in the case above, I need to think a bit with my fingers. You know, put something down, even if it comes out later, because I’m not sure of what I want to do. But it’s different from typing a thousand words and then dumping a thousand words. It’s more like a few hundred words.

Guess I’m rewiring the writing!

Reading, reading, and more reading

The Fantasy and Science Fiction Book Fest is still running. Nearly 200 books to choose from!

I want to add to my TB pile!