V.E. Vancollie – Yesterday’s productive write-in, with loaded hot chocolate due to the weather!

Sorry for skipping yesterday, I wasn’t feeling great and feared I’d make errors of the exact nature this post is meant to discuss. Which is fine if done intentionally, but not by accide…

Sigh There are days where I can definitely understand how some writers never make it past the editing stage of the entire process. I mean I do an initial sweep when I type up handwritten bits. Then…

While I can get inspiration almost anywhere – from pretty much anything! – there is one place where I tend to get it a lot. Namely, in the bath. I’ve pretty much always preferred …

The nights are closing in. Mornings have a chill. Rain and wind sweep in. Autumn has arrived! More than once these last few days, I’ve been stopped by the change in the weather and the season…

Given I’ve been deep in editing mode, Zadie Smith’s quote rang true. Not at the start of editing, perhaps, but definitely once you get to the end of the editing process. Once all of the…

A few years ago now, I mentioned how I get quite a few comments on my Star Wars fan fic along the lines of it being written “before I was born”. While I still get those, today someone d…

It’s always a great feeling when you’re doing an editing sweep through a story and you find that everything flows smoothly and reads well. It shows that you’re getting to the end …

The other day, in my local writing group’s online chat, we ended up discussing word wars again. The way it did so is a mite convoluted, but it made me think of alternative methods that exist …

Sorry, I got a little distracted these last few days by an original story side quest. In the online chat for my local writing group, someone posted a link to a magazine that was open for short stor…

One downside to not plotting everything out in a story before starting means that I can, sometimes, get myself into a bit of a mess. A drift, say, where I’m not entirely sure how to get from …

Yesterday’s quote by Doris Lessing most definitely resonated with me, one thousand percent! As I mentioned in my August progress review, I wrote Ásgarðrian Galdr for a very particular reason.…

Late yesterday evening, I finished typing up my third and fourth notebooks from July, meaning my 100k from then is now fully on my laptop! This meant that today’s write-in could be fully dedi…

I have to admit, lately, I’ve had November on my mind. Mostly as I’ve been toying with whether to make a particular story idea that occurred to me in July as my main challenge story for…

Yesterday evening, I opened up the file of my untitled Grimm fic in order to reread some of the beginning for a bit of play dancing I was going to do. I also thought it might be useful for the writ…

The other day, when I was typing up my July writings, I hit a scene I knew had a part two to it. I was actually looking forward to seeing what I’d done for it, as I didn’t quite remembe…

As I’ve said before, not all of the quotes that I post to discuss are ones that I agree with. This week’s one by Robert A. Heinlein is a case in point. The reason I went ahead and poste…

Today, I finished typing up the second of the notebooks I used in July! Despite some issues resulting from the power outage (it took my boiler out!), I’ve been continuing on with my writing g…

Well, one way to work without any internet induced distractions is to have no power at all! Today, I got home, had just enough time to get dinner together, before everything just switched off. It t…

Unlike last month, this time I’m off to a great start with my writing goals! Well, if you take the return from holiday as my starting point… I’ve already fully typed up the first …

After winning my challenge month in July, I pretty much checked out but for my leadership graph post. This was both to enjoy my holiday, but also to just focus on some other things after writing 10…

With my recent Grimm writings and musings on fairies, it’s hardly surprising that Hans Christian Andersen’s quote appealed to me yesterday. The more I’ve been musing on fairy tale…

I honestly can’t believe how bad I am with writing discipline at home just now! Even when I start the day telling myself I’ll be good and knock out the right number of words to make my …

While I do, as a whole, really prescribe to the advice of writing stories chronologically, I do, on occasion, find myself flitting about while writing a particular scene. These tend to be longer, q…

While I have recently spoken of how the muse isn’t necessary for writing, and that waiting around for it is a bad idea, that doesn’t negate the fact that having your muse on fire isn&#8…

Alt: Belgium Flag Animated Sparkle Background

The longer AI is around, and the more I hear about it’s use, the more… conflicted I become about it all. Some AIs seem genuinely amazing, like those which can can read mammograms better…

Friday evening, I had some unusual inspiration. Normally, when a plot bunny comes to me, it’s for a new scene in a story I’m working on, a potential sequel to something I’ve writt…

ALT: Tom Hiddleston as Loki

Argh! I just had the entire scene I was working on disappear due to a computer glitch. I hate it when this happens! For me, there’s nothing worse than rewriting a scene, or part of one, that …

As I have addressed more than once, writing can often come in peaks and troughs. Good days and bad. Lately, I’ve been in more of an ebb, but yesterday the floodgates opened and away I went, r…

While it is never a good idea to simply sit around and wait for inspiration to come to you, I thought Kristin Hannah’s quote particularly apt during a writing challenge month. Hence why both …

With the plot bunnies and my muse shifting back to Aria of Jötunheimr, I have returned to a scene where I’ve been having issues. It’s part of why I drifted away from writing a while bac…

One of the many beauties of having a writing group is that there are people there to help if you need it. Whether this is because you’re stuck with a word choice, an idea, or just need someon…

Unfortunately, it seems that the predictions are true and we absolutely are in our third heatwave of the summer! Which is fun – not. It’s such a pity seeing such nice weather outside bu…

Yes, I admit that Paulo Coelho’s quote stood out to me this week because I’ve been dabbling with fairies and elves as of late. It might have started with the simple and unexpected appea…

Yesterday evening, I was able to attend a talk in town on “The History of Folk Horror”. It’s the type of thing I attend not only because I’m really interested in the topic i…

As so often happens right when you’re trying to concentrate on one thing, something else interferes! Oh, well, can’t be helped at times. Regardless, we’re now the first of July an…

The safety measure is being installed on Cambridgeshire's guided network after three people died.

Given that we’re rapidly approaching July, and therefore one of the old Camp NaNo months, I’ve been thinking about what I want to focus on. I’ve already brought up the leadership …

I’ve mentioned before that I can get inspiration out of seemingly nowhere. Today’s examples is jewelry. Kunal Lakhotia – While I sometimes dress with an eye on what I want to writ…

The same day that I wrote my writing advice post on writing at your time, I received another visit from the midnight muse. While apt, it was quite an odd occurrence of hypnagogia. See, instead of p…

With all of my musings on cafés and good writing venues lately, is it any surprise that Lisa Jewell’s quote caught my eye yesterday? While I don’t agree with every last bit of what she …

Today, at the write-in, I proved everyone who ever thought I was going overboard by carrying three pens in my main writing bag wrong. For, not only did I need them all, but it still would have been…

I know my writing advice posts are sometimes few and far in-between, but I’ve already covered a lot of the more common ones. Which makes it harder to find new bits to do a post on. So, if you…

Yeah, I know, this post’s title really mirrors the one from last week that predated the unicorn post. What can I say? I hadn’t expected a fox to appear in the scene I wrote today at the…

I just read this article by The Guardian, and I have to admit, it makes me feel a little uneasy. While I can totally see why fans of Edith Wharton might be excited and stoked at having a new piece …