I can’t remember where I first heard about the Rifters Trilogy by Peter Watts. It may have been on a message board or one of the many reader/writer blogs I follow. I heard it was different, unique, not your regular science fiction plot. I filed the information away with the plan to pick up the…
Month: March 2019
Gestation
Ideas for stories come in all shapes and sizes. There are times when a story pops into my head almost fully formed. They’re rare, but it happens. It’s usually when I’m drifting off to sleep at night and I have to force myself to turn on the lamp next to my side of the bed,…
And now the second chapter…
I’ve now started work on rewriting the second chapter of my novel. The first chapter went better than I expected, so I feel like I have momentum behind me. My concern was having a strong opening to the story, something that would draw the reader in, get them interested, make them want to know more….
Talking about dialogue
Arguably one of the most difficult aspects of writing fiction is creating realistic dialogue. The problem lies in the fact that everyone speaks differently, with subtle nuances like slang, pronunciation, and accents. It’s easy enough to pick up on these things when you’re listening to someone speak. In writing, however, it’s difficult to convey those…
Novel Update
I’m working on the second draft of my first novel and, well, I’m making progress. Slow progress, but progress. I’ve been working on the first chapter for about a week now, trying to get it just right. The first chapter is where the first impression is made and I want to make sure I pull…
A different kind of beast
I’m working on the second draft of my novel and I’m finding it…challenging. This is my first long-form story and it’s much different from the short story format. The first draft took a few months, but it went better than I expected. I created a rough outline of each chapter, a character list to keep…