About Writing Archives - Page 2 of 53

False Starts

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Michell

I will be the first to admit that I was struggling to write the newest Mik Murdoch novel. I had a number of false starts including one where I wrote over 3,000 words before I realized just how slow everything was moving. That got me really thinking about the story and what I wanted to achieve with it. Except, I wasn’t getting any new ideas. I was just regurgitating all the old ideas. Nothing new was coming to mind. Overcoming the Problem I had to tear the story right down to the ground and start again almost from the beginning. The false starts didn’t mean the concept for the story was wrong. Just how I was going about telling it. […]

Should I be a planner or a pantster for my next book?

Posted on February 18, 2021 by Michell

Should I be a pantster or a planner for my next book? I have written books using both methods. I’m told the books were good in both cases. So, which method should I use? Mik Murdoch 5 is the next book, in case you were wondering. I haven’t been doing a lot of writing the past few months. I was busy editing The Goddess Renewed for several months and trying to keep my sanity for several more. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about what the next book(s) should be. In the case of Mik Murdoch 5, I know what the main plot is and who the characters will be. The problem shows itself when I try to refine the […]

World Building – Every Character Has a Story

Posted on February 11, 2021 by Michell

An I’ve been thinking a lot about characters and building rich, living worlds for them to live in. I have also been re-reading some old favourites. Specifically Anne McCaffrey’s Harper Hall Trilogy set in her fictional world of Pern. I have come to better understand that every character has a story within their world and approaching those various stories in different ways will enrich the world you are building. Pern – a rich story world Let me use Anne McCaffrey’s planet of Pern to better show what I mean. If you ask any lover of her Pern books what elements most stand out for them, you will likely hear about dragons and dragon riders. An invasive spore, know as Thread, […]

What is the Next Project?

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Michell

How do you figure out the next project? If you are like me, you have several stories percolating in your brain all the time. Plus you probably have notebooks/sticky notes/random napkins with other ideas sketched out. And then there are those new ideas that pop up whenever you aren’t looking. With all that noise, how do you (or in this case, me/I) decide what the next project should be? Stories Under Contract Anything that has a contract attached to it automatically floats to the top of the list. I am mindful that not everyone is at the stage of their career where they have books already under contract. I am fortunate to have a couple series that are in that […]

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