Reading Time: 4 minutes My step-dad died on Saturday the 11th of May 2019 at 11pm. I put off writing this for a long time, because I honestly had nothing to say. I’m still not sure I have anything of value to share. Death touches everyone. It always feels like the world had stopped spinning for everyone but…
Category: Editing
Using data to tell stories
Reading Time: 5 minutes I’ve been working on an application for a grant with writer, David Thomas Henry Wright (he’s really the mastermind behind the project). It’s an electronic literature proposal and it’s been quite time consuming. This is my own fault though; I wanted to create a test site as part of the project uses a Content Management…
Writing and researching military science fiction
Reading Time: 6 minutes When I started writing my novel, I knew a lot about trauma and nothing about the military. I knew from the very beginning I wanted to filter this experience of trauma through science fiction. So why am I writing science fiction? My first novel is a science fiction novel because, as a genre, I feel…
Author Q and A: David Thomas Henry Wright on electronic literature and short stories
Reading Time: 8 minutes Today I’m talking to David Thomas Henry Wright about electronic literature. If this genre is new to you, don’t panic. David defines electronic literature in his interview very succinctly, saying “It’s probably better to start by defining what electronic literature isn’t. It isn’t e-books. Rather, electronic literature refers to literary works that depend on computers/code…
OCD and putting yourself out there anyway
Reading Time: 3 minutes Today I want to talk about how hard it can be to put yourself out there and share your work. Part of the issue, for me at least, is vulnerability. My writing, while fictional, is always going to reflective of me in some way. Sharing it, and accepting critique and interpretation, makes me vulnerable. I’m…
Your first draft sucks. Get over it.
Reading Time: 4 minutes I finished editing my first draft over the weekend, but it didn’t feel like much of an achievement. I initially wrote the novel, and started this blog, because I wanted to take writing much more seriously. This first edit is one step on a very long journey. With that being said, as I move onto…
It’s okay for the second draft to take a while
Reading Time: 4 minutes Let’s talk about getting to that second draft. For me, the hardest part of editing the first draft has been reworking the plot. The plot in my novel is quite complex, though it can be broadly split into three main sections, which I’ve been able to map out quite well (see Aristotle’s plot structure for…
On writer’s block and not doing anything
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yeah, so, the last few weeks have sucked. I haven’t done anything on my digital poetry project. I’ve only edited one chapter of my novel. I have written four poems, but the one I’m most happy with isn’t publishable (I wrote it while I was upset with someone, which is a shame, because it’s a…
Rewriting the opening chapters
Reading Time: 3 minutes I finally got around to rewriting the opening chapters of my novel, and it’s taken me a very long time. I did no research before writing the first draft and, as a result, I made a lot of assumptions that needed to be changed. Natasha Lester, a writer of historical fiction, explains that she does…
Why it took me so long to start editing my novel
Reading Time: 2 minutes When it comes to editing a novel, Stephen King suggests leaving your first draft to rest. “How long you let your book rest” (2010, p. 211) he says “–sort of like dough between kneadings–is entirely up to you, but I think it should be a minimum of six weeks” (2010, p. 211). I left mine for…