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…
Reading Time: 5 minutes I did not write an outline for the first draft of my novel, but you should. I wrote about 5,000 words for the 2015 NaNoWriMo challenge. I had no plan. I just wanted words on the page. Back then I didn’t believe in my skills as a writer, so a few days in, I…
Reading Time: 5 minutes I’m a better writer because I travel, which is good, because I travel a lot. Let me demonstrate by looking only at this year so far. I saw 2019 in from the Isle of Skye in Scotland. I spent most of January driving around Scotland and England. Right now I’m in Cambodia with my…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Today I want to talk about whether or not a creative writing degree is worth it. In short, yes, yes it is. The thing to keep in mind though, is that the degree itself, the piece of paper you get at the end, has no bearing on whether or not you get that novel published…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Please remember to back up your work. I went to the UK for a holiday over Christmas and New Year. When I got back home, a month after I left, my laptop would not turn on. I could not remember my iCloud password and I ended up locked out for 24 hours. It was a…
Reading Time: 5 minutes Today I want to talk more about how scary it is being an emerging writer. A lot of people know me as a poet. Very few people know me as someone who writes fiction. Creating a name for myself in a new field is challenging. While I’m mostly focused on creating new work, I’m also…
Reading Time: 3 minutes My novel for NaNoWriMo is at 11, 719 words. So far, I’ve struggled to write as much as I would have liked. I’ve put a lot more pressure on myself as this is my second time writing a novel. I’ve had a lot more self-doubt. This novel also involves a lot more research than the…
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…
Reading Time: 2 minutes A lot of people tend to be surprised at how much I do and how I find time to write. Given we’re coming up to NaNoWriMo again, I’d talk about how you can actually find the time to to write 1700 words a day. To set the scene, these are some of the things I…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Next month is NaNoWriMo and I have an idea for a novel. I’ve had this idea since NaNoWriMo 2017 and have been running through different storylines in my head for almost a year. I’m keen to do NaNoWriMo again this year, despite the lack of time I have available and how overworked I am. I…