When I was a kid, magic was essential to my inner world. I read fantasy books full of witches and magicians and children with innate powers over the elements. I read about magic rings and wishing stones. I read about fairies and their glamours, about dragons and djinns. In The Real World, there was no… Continue reading What Magic We Make
Here we are, just vibing in the apocalypse...and I hope to distract from the arguably grim national and international current events with some updates regarding my upcoming short story publication, FOOTNOTES ON A SPACE OPERA! Cover Reveal! I have a finalized cover design!I was very intimidated by this aspect of the indie publication process. I couldn't find… Continue reading FOOTNOTES ON A SPACE OPERA: Cover Reveal And Preorder Link!
Even after hitting "Publish" on this post, I still don't know how I feel about the title statement. How it's worded, I mean. The ideas it represents are absolutely true. On November 9, 2020, I was assessed as having met criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In other words (and maybe… Continue reading I’m Autistic. (And I have ADHD.)
Popping my head up from the word-count trenches to give a quick, week-two update... (Here are my two previous posts about my NaNo foray if you're interested: my commitment to actually participate, and my week 1 update.) Definitely some rough days where my mental/creative energy output wasn't sufficient to hit that magic number (1,667 words). I gave… Continue reading NaNoWriMo 2019: Week 2
Novel outlining methods look so great on paper. Everything is in neat steps. You basically have an organized checklist for writing 50k+ words. But none of them work for me. A large part of being an artist is understanding your own creative process. If you can learn to work with yourself, your strengths and weaknesses,… Continue reading The Feminine Creative Process
I'm reading the novel 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (totally recommend, though I'm starting to take issue with 800+ page novels; they're EXHAUSTING). There's a character in it who's an aspiring fiction writer named Tengo. He has a revelation part-way through the book. He realizes he's never really been passionate about anything. He's performed well in… Continue reading when to give up on a story
I recently tried a revision experiment with a short story of mine, and I believe the results have implications beyond the piece. So here's a case study on revision from my writing life... A few years back, I wrote this short story I really loved. It felt complete, had a cool time-travel concept, and an… Continue reading writing in revision: a case study
There are two kinds of writers. Those who love writing first drafts, and those who love revising. I love writing first drafts. The first words of a new idea open a hidden door into a new world. Writing the first draft is exploring it, breathing foreign air, seeing new places unfold, and strange characters share… Continue reading my biggest (writing) weakness
Allison Wall 