Where do dystopian and post-apocalyptic genre fiction stand when the external world looks worse than the stories?
Tag: novel
Pitching a Novel in a Tweet? What is this, the technological dystopian future?
On January 30, 2020, I participated in my very first Twitter pitching event. And girl, do I have some THOUGHTS. But first, maybe some definition of terms. I know not all of the people who read this blog are writers, and y'all might be thinking, what the heck is pitching? When writers write a story,… Continue reading Pitching a Novel in a Tweet? What is this, the technological dystopian future?
What I Learned from My First NaNoWriMo
November is gone. I have to take a moment, to lift my head from the laptop, to let my eyes adjust to the sunlight, to start breathing again. 50,011 words. National Novel Writing Month is over. I did it. None of it feels real. I wonder if this has to do with John Gardner's idea… Continue reading What I Learned from My First NaNoWriMo
The Feminine Creative Process
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
Writing Contest News…
Got a little good news RE: the novel I've been working on. If that's interesting to you, awesome, and if not, no harm no foul. Ignore, click away, and good juju to you. Back in May, I entered my post-apocalyptic novel in the Colorado Gold Writing Contest. It's a novel-writing contest for unpublished writers that includes… Continue reading Writing Contest News…
Stop Writing, Please
I've been largely absent here for 2019. Sorry about that. I've been putting my writing energy and time into my novel. The concept for it has been rattling around in my head since 2014. I only just found an ending in November 2018, and, in May 2019, finished a first, full draft of the whole… Continue reading Stop Writing, Please
The Problem with the Hero’s Journey
There are two kinds of writers. Plotters, those who plan out the events of their stories before they write, and pantsers, those who write without knowing where they're going. I have been (and probably always will be) a pantser. This is fun for me while I'm writing, but hell when trying to put together a… Continue reading The Problem with the Hero’s Journey
Novel Writing, Consumerism, and the Skill of Waiting
We belong to an impatient culture. We don't wait for anything if we can help it, and if we have to wait, we tap our feet, sigh, and complain. Sitting and thinking that doesn't lead to immediate action is "wasting time" or "naval gazing" or "daydreaming." We have lost sight of the value in waiting.… Continue reading Novel Writing, Consumerism, and the Skill of Waiting
the novel as multiverse
One of Flannery O’Connor’s most popular statements goes, "I have to write to discover what I am doing. …I don’t know so well what I think until I see what I say." The more popular paraphrase is a little easier to parse. "I don’t know what I think until I read what I say." Novel writing… Continue reading the novel as multiverse
Allison Wall 