Tag Archives: writing

April 13, 2026 · 6:00 am

Sometimes I want to write, but words fail me #writing

We all have moments when our creativity fails us.

This happens when I have an idea, but the words won’t come. Or when they do, they feel stilted, awful. It happens to every writer at some point, and we feel alone in that experience. The words are supposed to flow from our fingers, but the well is dry and nary a drop fills our cup.

Some people call this writer’s block, and when I first began writing, I did too.

Now, twenty years on, I know it’s only a temporary, irritating, supremely frustrating lull in my creativity.

I’m experiencing such a moment right now. The world is in a spin, which is worrying enough. But more immediately, my husband has suffered yet another health crisis and has spent most of the last week in the hospital.

I have learned to write my way through these dry spells. Usually, the work I produce in this frame of mind is awful, and I wouldn’t share it with anyone. But I am a professional writer, and writing every day keeps me fit and in the habit of working.

Writing is like participating in sports or playing a musical instrument. I did both, and one thing I learned first is this: we must practice if we want to be good at it.

For me, succeeding at sports, music, or writing requires discipline. I’m a grandma and lost my ability to play hockey many years ago, and am no longer too musically inclined. If I allow it, I will lose momentum and purpose if I stop writing for any reason.

I don’t want to lose that feeling of passion for my work.

Nevertheless, there are times when we come to a place where we can’t think of what to write.

It happens to everyone, and we each handle it differently.

I will share how I deal with lulls in creativity, and believe me, I know it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

First, I suggest you save the file you are working on, the one you can’t seem to make headway on. Close it, and delete nothing. You will be able to continue or use this work later, so file it properly.

Sometimes, the problem is that your mind is on a different project that wants to be written, and you can’t focus on the job at hand.

If that is the case, work on the project that is on your mind. Let that creative energy flow, and you can reconnect with the first story once the new idea is out of the way.

I have mentioned this before, but for me, writer’s block is not a block per se. It’s an inability to visualize a scene I must write to advance a story. If I can’t picture it, I can’t describe it.

Unfortunately, some people have a different experience, one where they have no words whatsoever. They try, they struggle, and nothing comes to them.

This creates a kind of trauma. Once a person has experienced that moment of complete inability, the fear of being unable to write can magnify the problem until it paralyzes them.

Frustrating, yes. Do I question my choice of profession? Yes. Will I chain myself to my desk until I get it written?

No, but I will make avocado toast and read a cozy mystery until I decide to stop feeling pathetic and do what I know works for me.

So, what do I do when the words don’t come?

Jennifer Lauck is an American fiction and non-fiction author, essayist, speaker, and writing instructor. She offers great seminars on writing, and I have learned a great deal about writing and a writer’s life from her.

What follows is me passing what I have learned from her on to you:

First, I open a new document. At the top of this document, I type “Where I Am Today.”

I look around myself and see the room I am in, trying to see it with a stranger’s eyes.
I briefly describe what the stranger might see on entering that room.
Then I describe how I feel sitting in that place at that moment in time.

I write two or three paragraphs just to prove I can do it.

Next, I go somewhere else and take my notebook or a scrap of paper, just something to write on.

I am the stranger there, so I write three more paragraphs detailing how I fit into that new space and how it makes me feel. You could do this at the mall, a coffee shop, or in the supermarket parking lot. Just go somewhere that is not your usual space and do it.

When I am stuck for words, the most important thing I do is sit somewhere quiet and let my mind wander.

Or not. Sometimes an activity I’ve been avoiding, such as cleaning a bathroom or doing laundry can jar an idea loose. It’s work that allows for creative thinking and I feel incredibly productive at the same time.

The last exercise is my favorite part: Where do I want to be? I visualize it and describe my imaginary scene as if I am looking at it.

I want to walk along the high-tide mark on a foggy beach. I want to hear the gulls and the waves. I want to feel at peace again.

I know it’s a little unusual, but this exercise works for me. Writing about nothing in particular is like doodling. It is a form of mind-wandering, or daydreaming. Random ideas and thoughts can come to you, seemingly from nowhere. With perseverance, you will be able to write your other work again.

Everyone has family, jobs, and demands on their time and energy. Reality intrudes on our writing time, something no one is immune to.

Sometimes the crazy politics and asinine cruelties of this world get in the way of writing.

We might feel unwell or have too many things to accomplish and not enough time to get them all done. Someone you love may be facing a debilitating illness, or worse.

In my real life, all of these things sap my creativity.

But I sit down and get at least 100 words on paper, random ideas written just to prove to myself that I can. This usually leads to a more productive writing session. But if it doesn’t, I don’t beat myself up.

After all, I just wrote 100 words, so I’m still a writer.

In the meantime, here is the picture of an amazing stump that I found in a garden at the local hospital. Perhaps it will inspire a few ideas for you!

Giant Stump © Connie J. Jasperson 2026

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April 6, 2026 · 6:00 am

Making a fantasy map #writing

Our modern lives are ruled by the geography of our area. Rivers, mountains, lakes, and ponds impede travel, forcing a road to go around them.

Unfortunately, maps have fallen out of favor thanks to satellite technology and the GPS in our cell phones. Many people don’t know how to read a map.

Authors might want to develop this skill because maps (and the ability to understand them) are a useful tool for authors of any fiction set in any place and time.

Take a look at the geography of your home area. As I mentioned last week, where I live, the shoreline of Puget Sound and the foothills of the mighty Cascade Mountains determine the interstate highway’s path and the locations of cities and towns. Those detours add to the distance we must travel and increase the time it takes to go from one place to another.

My best tool is my storyboard. It is an Excel workbook that is one of the most valuable tools I have to aid me in worldbuilding. This workbook is a warehouse of information about my work-in-progress.

I have talked a lot about storyboards, so for more on how to create one that works for you, go to Worldbuilding – the stylesheet/storyboard.

If you are writing a contemporary novel or historical work set in our real world, this is where you might want to go to Google Earth and find real-world maps that will help your characters navigate their city or countryside.

But maybe you are designing a fantasy world. In that case, you only need a pencil-drawn map such as this one:

But maybe you want to go a little deeper into visualizing the world your characters inhabit. When I am stuck, working on my map helps me visualize what has to happen next in the story. I love adding texture to it, putting the mountains where they belong, and showing where the grassy plains are. Frankly, I like to make art, so it’s a relaxing way to get through a temporary block.

Maps can show us far more than where mountains and rivers are located. They can show us political or ideological boundaries. Countries’ borders must be accurately shown and regularly updated on modern maps. Like every other professional, mapmakers are proud of their work and want everyone to be able to use and understand their creations.

People have been making maps since the advent of writing systems. The ancient Egyptians were the first civilization to regularly use the cardinal points (north, south, east, and west) for orientation in mapmaking, and your map should too, or only you will understand it.

North will be at the top, east to the right, south to the bottom, and west to the left. The points quarter the map at 90-degree intervals in the clockwise direction. This is standard in modern maps.

Even if your story is set in a town, you might want to map it out. The lines and scribbles you add to your map are the information you can use to check for consistency in your narrative.

If, in chapter one, Hero leaves home and follows the river north to the Big City of Smallville, he won’t reach home in time to save his mother if he then races east in chapter ten. He must return south, and your notes on your little map will help you remember this.

Or perhaps Hero lives in a city and wants coffee at the shop two blocks north of his apartment. He will have to return past the same shops and buildings he passed on the way. If some of the action occurs in those buildings, you want to have your map out and update it as needed.

Use a pencil, so you can easily note whatever changes occur during revisions. Your map doesn’t have to be fancy. Lay it out like a standard map with north at the top, east on the right, south at the bottom, and west on the left.

In my experience, the first draft of a map is never beautiful. And things will evolve as you make revisions to your manuscript. This is how my maps look after I’m done with the first draft:

Original Map of Neveyah from 2008 © Connie J. Jasperson

You may need to note where rivers and forests are situated relative to towns, or in the case of towns, what streets and cross streets our Heroes must travel.

Many towns are situated on rivers. Water rarely flows uphill. While it may do so if pushed by the force of wave action or siphoning, water is a slave to gravity and chooses to flow downhill.

A river may emerge from a mountain spring or a glacier, but it will flow downhill to a valley where it will either continue on to the ocean or will pool and form lakes and ponds. Farms are usually situated near water sources. When making your map, locate rivers between mountains and hills.

On your fantasy map, geography makes travel difficult, forcing a road or trail to go around the various obstacles. This creates opportunities for plot points, because the struggle is the story. Those detours add to the distance and increase the time it takes to travel using the common mode of transportation.

In my part of the world, the native forest trees I see in the world around me are mostly Douglas firs, western red cedars, hemlocks, big-leaf maples, alders, cottonwood, and ash. Because I am familiar with them, these are the trees I visualize when I set a story in a forest.

What makes up your written world? How does your environment affect the way your characters live? Remember, the world is shown through the three senses: sight, sound, and smell. What one sees, smells, and hears in the wilderness is very different from what they experience in the city.

Cities have as complex a geography as a wilderness does. It is created by the terrain on which the city was built and its architecture.

The largest city in Washington State is Seattle. It lies between the salty waters of Puget Sound and the fresh waters of Lake Washington, the largest natural lake in western Washington. This geography affects our modern society by limiting where highways can be built and by determining the best places to build tall buildings or create suburban neighborhoods.

Humans have always created communities where resources are plentiful. Villages arise along rivers, forests, and lakes. These geographical places provide resources that allow people to thrive.

Humans prefer valleys for farming and also alter the visible landscape to suit their needs.

Satellite View of Puget Sound by Sentinel 2

We cut trees from the forests to build homes and create farmlands. We redirect rivers to provide irrigation or (in modern times) power. We build canals for easier travel and to enable faster shipping commerce.

Your narrative will describe the various terrains and obstacles your characters must face. A little map drawn on notepaper will help you keep things on track.

Maybe you aren’t artistic, but you think you will want a nice map later. In that case, a little scribbled map and a few indications of distances and obstacles will enable a map artist to provide you with a beautiful and accurate product. An artist can give you a map containing the information readers need to enjoy your book.

If you choose to include a map in your book, you will make readers (like me) happy.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Map of Neveyah © Connie J. Jasperson 2026

IMAGE: Original Map of Neveyah from 2008 © Connie J. Jasperson

IMAGE: Satellite View of Puget Sound, Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Puget Sound by Sentinel-2, 2018-09-28 (small version).jpg,”Wikimedia Commons,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Puget_Sound_by_Sentinel-2,_2018-09-28_(small_version).jpg&oldid=1114501049(accessed April 5, 2026).

Foundations of Worldbuilding: maps #writing

The town I grew up in bears little resemblance today to the place it was ten years ago. New subdivisions have arisen along what used to be country roads. New shopping centers now exist in areas where few people once lived. The local municipalities have replaced stop lights with roundabouts at intersections that see heavy traffic.

Traffic along the I5 corridor has become unmanageable. Why is this so? All one has to do is look at a map.

The Puget Sound Basin is a narrow, winding corridor of valleys that run between the Cascade Mountains and the Salish Sea. This lowland stretch of valleys and rivers has been the trail from the Columbia River in the south to British Columbia since before Europeans arrived here. Indigenous people used this route as the main trading trail for thousands of years.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t plan for eight-lane freeways, and adding more lanes to I5 is not feasible.

We on the West Coast live in an active earthquake zone, so a double-decker highway isn’t a popular idea with those of us who must travel it. Their danger here was made apparent in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake – Wikipedia.

Cities grow where there is access to fresh water and sufficient food to supply their population. In the lowlands of Western Washington State, food from both land and sea and fresh water are plentiful.

So how does this long-winded discussion of the history of my local terrain relate to worldbuilding?

No matter what genre you are writing in, maps are excellent multipurpose tools.

Maps show you the world. If you are writing a contemporary story set in your town, printing out a Google map keeps you from forgetting how long it takes to get from one point to another. I live in Olympia. Seattle is seventy miles north and Portland is around 112 miles to the south.

If my characters need to go to either city, it will take all day to go there, meet the appointment, and return to Olympia. They might even plan to stay overnight rather than drive home in the dark and pouring rain.

I write fantasy. In my world, people travel on foot and on horseback, but if they must go somewhere far away, they won’t push themselves to go more than twenty miles a day, unless there is a valid reason.

That distance is doable, assuming the weather is good, the road is fairly decent, and the characters are healthy. Small villages will crop up at intervals of five to ten miles apart, places where travelers might purchase food, or maybe even find shelter for the night.

Otherwise, they will be camping.

I love maps. My own maps start out in a rudimentary form, just a way to keep my work straight. I use pencil and graph paper at this stage, because as the rough draft evolves, sometimes towns must be renamed. They may have to be moved to more logical places. Whole mountain ranges may have to be moved or reshaped so that forests and savannas will appear where they are supposed to be in the story.

Perhaps you think you don’t need a map, and maybe you don’t.

However, if your characters are traveling and you are writing about their travels, you probably should make a rudimentary map. All you need is a few lines scribbled to indicate a trail or road, an indication of where mountains and water lie in relation to the trail, and a few marks indicating where the towns are.

I always make a map because, if am not really on top of it, the spelling of town names might accidentally evolve over the course of the first draft. Maudy will become Maury (this did happen), and distances will become too mushy even for me. The map is my indispensable tool for keeping my story straight.

What should go on a map? When your characters are traveling great distances, they may pass through villages on their way, and if these places figure in the events of the book, they should be noted on the map. This prevents you from:

Accidentally naming a second village the same name later in the manuscript.
Misspelling the town’s name later in the narrative.
Forgetting where the characters were in chapter four.

Events and confrontations might impede your characters. Make a note of where they occurred.

If they are pertinent to the story, you will want to note these locations on your map so that you don’t contradict yourself if your party must return the way they came:

rivers
swamps
mountains
hills
towns
forests
oceans

If your work is sci-fi, consider making a map of the space station or ship. Billy Ninefingers, is set in a wayside inn. I made a drawing of the floorplan and little map of the village because the inn is the world in which the story takes place. As far as distances in space go, I am not qualified to explain what is possible or not. For that, you need to do some research and look at current theories.

If you are writing fantasy, I suggest you keep the actual distances mushy because some readers will nitpick the details, no matter how accurate you are. Yes, you wrote it, but they don’t see it the way you do. This is because their perception of a league may be three miles while yours might be one and a half.

Historically, a league was the distance one could walk in an hour. Even though a league has no finite length, some readers will become so annoyed by this that they will give your book a three-star review, simply because they disagree with the length of time your character took to travel a certain distance.

Huw the Bard is a good example of that. In the novel, Huw, (pronounced Hugh) takes two months to travel between the city of Ludwellyn and the village of Clythe. In his story, Huw Owyn is walking through fields, woods, and along several winding rivers for the first half of his journey. Somedays, he is unable to travel at all.

He must backtrack as frequently as he goes forward in an effort to sneak around those who are hunting him. It’s only safe for him to walk on the main road once he makes it to Maury, weeks after fleeing Ludwellyn.

©connie j jasperson 2014 – 2026

It is a stretch of road that he could have done in two weeks if he had been able to stay on the main road. But that inability to make progress creates opportunities for tension and mayhem.

Many readers (like me) love finding fantasy novels that include maps. If you are writing fantasy but feel your hand-drawn map isn’t good enough to include in the finished product, consider hiring an artist to make your map from your notes. Because I am an artist, my pencil-drawn map always evolves into artwork for the book.

Your mind is the medium through which the idea for a novel or story is filtered, and words are how it is made real. The key to making both fiction and non-fiction real for the reader is subtle but crucial: worldbuilding. Maps, no matter how rudimentary, are the foundation of worldbuilding in my writing process.

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March 23, 2026 · 6:00 am

Worldbuilding – Calendars and Maps #writing

I discovered early on that creating a calendar and a map for each novel gives me a realistic view of my plot arc. A mushy timeline stands out. I don’t want my readers wondering how my characters managed to cram a week’s worth of running around into only two days.

Think about it. Errands take time. Shopping for groceries takes time. If I go to a friend’s house, chat for an hour, and drive back home, I have spent at least two hours, possibly more.

The weather and time of year affect how long errands take. Walking in rain and wind vs. a mild sunny day will take longer and feel worse.

No matter the genre of your novel, it helps to know which season your events take place in. Foliage changes with the seasons, and weather is a part of worldbuilding.

And there are other reasons for making a calendar of events for your novel, whether you are writing romance, sci-fi, fantasy, military thrillers, etc. Time should not be fluid UNLESS a core plot point of your novel is the ability to alter the flow of time, such as Harry Potter’s Time Turner device.

The calendar is a visual reference that helps with pacing and consistency. In conjunction with a map, a calendar keeps the events moving along the story arc. It ensures you allow enough time to reasonably accomplish large tasks, enabling a reader to suspend their disbelief.

They ensure you don’t inadvertently jump from season to season when describing the scenery surrounding the characters.

So, why worry about calendars in your fantasy worldbuilding? It’s just fantasy so anything goes, right?

No.

Fantasy must look and feel like reality, and fantastic elements must be organic and natural to that world. Inconsistency and mushy elements discourage readers. Springtime, summertime, winter, or fall, each season (or lack thereof) has to be consistent within itself, even if the plants and scenery are otherworldly.

As you are writing a story, you might need to know what day of the week it is. Some things do take time, such as walking from one town to another. If you aren’t on top of things, you could have people breaking the sound barrier in their mad dash to the village forty miles away.

The distance a person can walk in a day varies depending on their health, terrain, and weather. A healthy person could travel from two to thirty miles. I would say that, on average, in varied terrain, a walk of forty miles might take a healthy person two days.

They should be prepared to spend one night camping alongside the road or hope to fine a roadside inn.

Much of my output is fantasy, and one might think a fantasy calendar with fantasy names for everything would lend a foreign atmosphere to the worldbuilding.

Not necessarily so.

When it comes to calendars, I suggest you stick with what is familiar, and here is why.

While creating my first world in 2008, a special calendar seemed like a good thing. The storyline and world of Mountains of the Moon were originally conceived for an anime-style RPG that was never built. When the project was scrapped, I still had the rights to my storyline, maps, and calendars.

My calendar for that world was (and unfortunately must remain) a hot mess.

In the game as we envisioned it, the calendar wouldn’t have been a problem, as the days of the week were only mentioned in terms of when a shop was open. In stories set in the world of Neveyah … it’s a problem for me as a writer.

In Neveyah, a year has thirteen months, each with twenty-eight days. That’s doable, no problem. Thirteen months are easy to work with because they are on paper. The extra month at the end of the year is called Holy Month.

Yes, a 365-day year and standard twelve months would be less confusing. Please have pity. A newbie author invented this, unaware that one little story would evolve into a series. It seemed so “fantasy” at the time.

Unfortunately, the months are named after astrological signs. Capricas, Aquis, Piscus, etc. This is a problem because few people know which time of year Taurus or Capricorn is, unless they occasionally read their horoscopes or know their own sun sign.

I added one extra day at the end of the year, which ends on the Winter solstice. (Sure, whatever. No problem.)

The winter solstice is called Holy Day, belongs to no month, and marks the beginning of the new year. Every four years, they have a two-day holiday and a big party. (Sounds fun, so no problem.)

The names I assigned to the dates and months were exceedingly uncreative and awkward: Lunaday, Tyrsday, Odensday, Torsday, Frosday, Sunnaday, and Restday. (Oh, you noticed it too! Sunnaday is the sixth day of the week, which lends itself to serious confusion.) Restday is fairly explanatory, but why OH why didn’t I give the other names a bit more thought?

Every story I write set in that universe has its own calendar of events, and each is labeled with the year number that the story is set in. They feature different characters and skip around in the timeline. I update that calendar as I write to make sure no one is walking at the speed of light.

I create the calendar in Excel, but you can use anything to make your calendar. There are plenty of blank templates for creating 365-day calendars out there, and they cost nothing. I just like fiddling with mine when I’m stuck, as it usually helps me figure out how to move things along.

In 2008, I had no idea just how awful the Neveyah calendar would turn out to be. And now, eighteen years later, I’m stuck with it. Please, take my advice and keep it simple.

Just sayin’. This is why ALL my other books are plotted using the modern Gregorian calendar.

But what’s this about maps? Next week, we will explore maps and why they are important during the writing stage.

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March 16, 2026 · 6:00 am

Planning a series #writing

I’m a fan of book series. I’m like every other avid reader in that I hate to see the story end. Also, if it’s a really compelling series, I will wonder how it all started.

Most authors don’t plan for their novel-in-progress to become a series, but by the time they reach the conclusion of the story, they discover that it isn’t really the end, that the characters have so much more to say. Most cozy mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi series begin this way.

Sometimes, a first novel finds its niche. Readers love the engaging characters, and the plot moves along to a satisfying conclusion. Readers say they want more, and so the series begins.

However, there are times when an author knows at the outset that the story is too big for one book. They know it will take two or more novels to tell that story.

Regardless of whether or not you plan for your novel to become a series, the novel that opens the series must have a complete story arc, a finite, satisfying ending, and be able to stand alone.

I say this because writing a novel takes time. Readers nowadays are impatient and vocal about it on social media, often heaping criticism on the offending author.

Yet they don’t want AI slop. They just want YOU to spew it forth in as little time as possible.

Very few of us are able to write two to four novels a year, as Stephen King does.

First, you must remember that a projected series is a universe unto itself, even if it is set in the real world. It is the story of that universe, explored across several books.

Speaking as a reader, if you are writing a series, you should think about the overall structure well in advance. Every book in the series needs its own plot and must end in a way that doesn’t leave the reader wondering what the hell just happened. They like a satisfying ending and HATE cliff-hangers.

There are two kinds of series, episodic and continuing, or as I like to think of them, finite and infinite.

The episodic series is like a television series. Each novel features an established set of characters, and each episode is a new adventure. There may be a lingering mystery in the background that unites them and is resolved in a later book, but each episode must resolve the problem at hand.

In some ways, an episodic series is the easiest to write because each book features established characters in an established world and society. (Sorry about the repetition there.) Many cozy mysteries and fantasy series are episodic. They feature standalone stories that bring us closer to the protagonist, and I love them all.

In another type of series, the installments might jump around between characters or to widely different eras in that universe’s historical timeline. Think Terry Pratchett’s Discworld or L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s Saga of Recluce series.

Some installments in an episodic series may introduce a new protagonist, or even explore the other side of the story from a less antagonistic point of view. It may show that the opposition is not intrinsically evil, that both sides are striving for the same thing but with radically differing methods.

The continuing series requires some advance planning. It is a finite multi-volume series of books covering one group’s efforts to achieve a single epic goal. While each book may be set in an established world, it might feature an entirely different set of characters and their storyline.

The story usually has a strong theme that unites the series. It might be the hero’s journey or coming-of-age. Or it might follow the life of one main character and their sidekicks as they struggle to complete an arduous quest. Robert Jordan’s (and Brandon Sanderson’s) The Wheel of Time series is a prime example of the continuing series.

An episodic series is easier to plan, as each quest is resolved in a single novel. The worldbuilding was accomplished in the first novel, so all one has to do is build on it in the later novels. Each installment should leave no loose ends. If the author stops writing in that series, nothing is left hanging.

A continuing series must have a complete plot arc for each book. PLUS, it must add to the series’ overarching plot arc. Each novel is only a section or chapter of the larger story, all with the goal of meeting at the end for the final battle. Speaking as a reader, please keep track of the subplots via an outline. I say this so you don’t leave loose ends, but also to ensure the subplots come together at the final battle.

Sequels happen when an author is in love with their characters, and those characters and their stories resonate with readers. Sequels are how trilogies become series.
Companion novels occur simultaneously alongside the main story but feature side characters doing their own thing.
Prequels are one of my favorite kinds of novels. I am always curious as to how the whole thing started.
Spin-offs might feature side characters or the protagonist’s descendants.

How does an author manage the character arc for one group over the course of a series? I suggest storyboarding. I do my storyboards in Excel, but you can make them any way that works for you. A notebook, sticky notes, Scrivener, it’s all good. Feel free to find your own happy place.

Then,

Write a synopsis of what you think the Big Picture is, the entire story.
Write it out, even if that synopsis goes for 5,000 to 10,000 words.

Sample Storyboard.

If that storyboard alerts you to the fact that the story is too large for one book, separate the sections into however many novels of reasonable length it will take, and plan how to end each installment in a way that won’t make readers quit the series.

Outlines help me decide on the structure of the larger story. By making one, I have a better idea of how each plot will unfold.

Once you have figured out the entire arc of the series, make an outline of book one. This allows your creative mind to insert foreshadowing. This will happen through clues and literary Easter eggs that surface as the series progresses.

What if you are writing your first novel, but you suddenly realize the characters still have adventures waiting for them, I suggest waiting to outline the next book until after book one is finished and ready for the final edit. Plots constantly evolve as we write. Book one is the foundation novel of the series, so it must be completed before you begin building the rest of the story.

Maps and calendars are essential tools for the author, no matter what genre you are writing in. Regardless of how you create your stylesheet/storyboard, I suggest you include these elements:

A GLOSSARY is especially important. I suggest you keep a list of names and invented words as they arise, all spelled the way you want them.
MAPS are good, but don’t have to be fancy. All you need is something rudimentary to show you the world’s layout.
A CALENDAR of events is especially important.

Outlining the next novel should be simpler if you keep a record of all the changes that evolve when writing the first novel.

A stylesheet/storyboard is a good tool for fantasy authors because we invent entire worlds, religions, and magic systems.
We often invent names and don’t want to contradict ourselves or have our characters’ names change halfway through the book.

Next week, we will look at creating a calendar for stories set in a speculative fiction world. We will look at some of my failures and see why simpler is usually better.

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March 9, 2026 · 6:00 am

Successful revisions #writing

I always think that in some ways, books are like machines. They’re comprised of many essential components, and if one element fails, the book won’t work the way the author envisions it.

So, what are these parts?

Prose, plot, transitions, pacing, theme, characterization, dialogue, and mechanics (grammar/punctuation).

As an editor, I’ve seen every kind of mistake you can imagine, and I have written some travesties myself. I need my writing group, people with a critical eye who see my work first and give me good advice when I’ve gone astray.

I don’t want to waste my editor’s time, so once I have completed the revisions suggested by my beta readers, I begin a self-edit.

I use Microsoft Word, but most word processing programs have a read-aloud function. I place the cursor where I want to begin and open the Review Tab. Then, I click on Read Aloud and begin reading along with the mechanical voice. Yes, the AI voice can be annoying and doesn’t always pronounce things right, but this first tool shows me a wide variety of places that need rewriting.

I habitually type ‘though’ when I mean ‘through,’ and ‘lighting’ when I mean ‘lightning.’ These are two widely different words but are only one letter apart. Most misspelled words will leap out when you hear them read aloud.

Run-on sentences stand out.
Inadvertent repetitions also stand out.
Hokey phrasing doesn’t sound as good as you thought it was.
You notice where words like “the” or “a” before a noun were skipped.

This process involves a lot of stopping and starting, taking me a week to get through the entire 90,000-word manuscript. At the end, I will have trimmed about 3,000 words.

The next phase of this process is where I find and correct punctuation and find more places that need improvement. Sometimes I trim away entire sections, riffs on ideas that have already been presented. Often, they are outright repetitions that don’t leap out on the computer screen. (Those are often cut-and-paste errors.)

Open your manuscript. Break it into separate chapters, and make sure each is clearly and consistently labeled. Make certain the chapter numbers are in the proper sequence and that they don’t skip a number. For a work in progress, Baron’s Hollow, I would title the chapter files this way:

BH_ch_1
BH_ch_2
and so on until the end.

Print out the first chapter. Everything looks different printed out, and you will see many things you don’t notice on the computer screen or hear when the AI voice reads it aloud.

Turn to the last page. Cover the page with another sheet of paper, leaving only the last paragraph visible.
Starting with the last paragraph on the last page, begin reading, working your way forward.
Use a yellow highlighter to mark each place that needs correction.
Put the corrected chapter on a recipe stand next to your computer. Open your document and begin making revisions as noted on your hard copy.

Repeat this process with each chapter.

This is the phase where I look for what I think of as code words. I look at words like “went.” In my personal writing habits, “went” is a code word that tells me when a scene ends and transitions to another stage. The characters or their circumstances are undergoing a change. One scene is ending, and another is beginning.

Clunky phrasing and info dumps are signals that tell me what I intend the scene to be. In the rewrite, I must expand on those ideas and ensure the prose is active. I must cut some of the info and allow the reader to use their imagination.

Let’s look at the word “went.” When I see it, I immediately know someone is going somewhere.

But in many contexts, “went” is a telling word and can lead to passive phrasing.

Passive phrasing does the job with little effort on the author’s part, which is why the first drafts of my work are littered with it. Active phrasing takes more effort because it involves visualizing a scene and showing it to the reader.

I ask myself, “How do they go?” Went can always be shown as a brief, one-sentence scene. James opened the door and strode out.

Confusing passages stand out when you see them printed. Maybe it’s the opposite of an info dump. Maybe the lead-up to the scene wasn’t shown well enough and leaves the reader wondering how such a thing happened.

The most confusing places are often sections where I cut a sentence or paragraph and moved it to a different place. These really stand out if they create a garbled scene.

HINT: If your eye wants to skip over a section of the printout, STOP. Read that section aloud and discover why your mind wants to skip it. Was it too wordy? Was it muddled? Something made your eye want to skip it and you need to discover why.

By the end of phase two, I will have trimmed about 3,000 more words from my manuscript.

At this point, the manuscript might look finished, but it has only just begun the journey. Now it is as ready as I can make it, and it goes to my editor, Irene, who gives it the final polish.

Context is everything. I am wary of relying on Grammarly or ProWriting Aid for anything other than alerting you to possible comma and spelling malfunctions.

If you don’t know anything about punctuation, don’t feel alone. Most of us don’t when we’re first starting out, but we learn by looking things up and practicing.

If you are looking for a simple guide to commas that will cost you nothing, check out my post, Fundamentals of Grammar: 7 basic rules of punctuation, published here July 7, 2021.

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March 2, 2026 · 6:00 am

Microsoft, you are p**sing me off, and other random rants #writing

Look, Microsoft. I have been using your products since 1994. I’ve stuck with you through screens of death, through Windows ME and Vista, and through Windows 8.

I adored Windows 10. I use your product every day, often for six to ten hours at a stretch. I write books and sometimes edit other people’s work. I listen to a terrific playlist while I do that, mostly epic JRPG fantasy game soundtracks. I also use it for gaming.

I’m just gonna lay this out there like it is. With every update, your current version of Windows 11 has become more of a shit show.

On the good side: While I utterly despise the mandatory inclusion of AI (CoPilot) to “assist” my writing, I am glad you allow me to turn it off. YAY for that blessing! It is the most gawd-awful example of “fixing what ain’t broke” that I have recently encountered. In the default application, it insists on giving unasked-for advice, attempting to rewrite my prose to comply with modern business practices. Thank you for allowing me to shut it off, even though I had to Google the instructions.

Don’t screw that up, please. (Instructions for turning off CoPilot at the bottom of the post.)

Frustrated cartoon monkey at a computer, via Microsoft Word.

courtesy Office360 graphics

And now the negative: since the most recent updates, my audio has been acting up. Even better, I couldn’t connect either of my two (2) computers to my printer! That was a pain, as I like to print out my revised chapters and read them out loud to make sure they say what I intended. I had to pay a tech to come in and fix my printer problem. I don’t want to have to do that for the audio.

I live in fear of updates.

And yes, I have updated all the drivers and also ensured I have the most recent Realtek updates.

It’s still randomly droning and hanging up on certain sounds and words with M’s or N’s, even with the new drivers installed. Sometimes it goes all day with no problems. Other times it’s so bad I have to restart the computer two or three times in one day.

And this occurs on both my desktop AND my laptop.

Why should I have to go through this? The desktop PC is old, purchased in 2020, but this laptop is less than two years old, and if this keeps up, it’s gonna be a boat anchor because the random buzzing and stuttering is making me nuts.

I have no desire to purchase a Mac. My first computer was a Mac, and the office in my last job was equipped with Macs. So, while I have used them before, I prefer a PC.

Besides, my son-in-law works for you. I want to keep him employed!

Fix your product and let me get back to work! Otherwise, I will have to consider jumping ship. Don’t make me go to the dark side. Don’t do it.

And now for the sad news of the week: On the first day of February, I made the mistake of purchasing living plants, a miniature rose, and a potted tulip to brighten the eternal gray of winter in the Pacific Northwest.

I know better than this. Greg was the plant person, not me. Nevertheless, from the moment I brought them home, both Rose and Tulip were important members of the household. Rose, in her lovely pink petals and Tulip in her red were champions, fighting back the Northwest gloom.

Unfortunately, both Rose and Tulip have passed away. Their two weeks of life in my neglectful care were meaningful and made a difference during the darkest days of winter.

Whatever it was that finally took them, at least they went into that dark unknown together.

One day, they were sitting in my window, waving to traffic as it passed by, and the next, they lay draped over the edges of their respective pots. They were good plants, beloved by all who met them, and I’m sure they are now in plant heaven.

Truthfully, I prefer houseplants that are dishwasher safe. I usually stop at the Dollar Tree and get the kind that you can put in the top rack every month or so for a good cleaning. I just run the rinse cycle (with the dry cycle turned off). It gives them a good wash and they look like new. I’ve never had a plastic plant die, no matter how I neglected it.

Now on to my next rant. I was recently forced to change health insurance so that my husband could be cared for by the doctor who makes monthly house calls to the Adult Family Care home where he is living. Suddenly, I was faced with the fact that while my husband was able to be cared for well, I could NOT find a doctor in my town that accepted new patients with my insurance.

But HUZZAH! After two months of struggle, searching, and worry that I would have to drive 70 miles north to the Seattle area to find a doctor that accepts new patients with my insurance, I have connected with a doctor who more than suits my needs. I am now on proper blood pressure meds, and hopefully everything will stay smooth sailing.

If Microsoft patches its current problems anytime soon, my blood pressure should return to somewhere near normal.

One can dream.

And finally, as promised above, here is an image showing how to turn off CoPilot in MS Word, as shown by my Google search. Feel free to right-click and save it to your desktop.

Credits and Attributions:

“IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Jan Brueghel the Elder – Flowers in a Vase with a Clump of Cyclamen and Precious Stones.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jan_Brueghel_the_Elder_-_Flowers_in_a_Vase_with_a_Clump_of_Cyclamen_and_Precious_Stones.jpg&oldid=1168023989 (accessed March 1, 2026).

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February 23, 2026 · 6:00 am

Exploring Depth #writing

We often talk about the story arc and its component parts and features. But to explain depth, we must put all the parts and pieces back together and examine the story as a whole.

So, what is depth, exactly? It is the component of the narrative that supports and informs the story’s arc. It is also comprised of layers.

When you look at a pond, you see the surface. It could be calm, or if a storm is brewing, it will be ruffled and moving. But it is deep and conceals many things beneath that calm surface. A narrative also comprises several layers.

Layer One is the surface layer. It is the Literal Layer; the what-you-see-is-what-you-get layer. The components of the story’s surface are:

the setting
the action
the visual/physical experience of the characters as they go about their lives.

When the reader sees something, they recognize it. Trees are trees, a bus is a bus, and we all recognize those aspects of worldbuilding. The surface layer also shows the characters’ actions in real time, so readers immediately feel they know what is going on.

The reader sees it when a figure steps from behind a tree. A gun was drawn and fired. What happened was clear and easy to understand.

Some authors play with the surface layer, choosing realism, surrealism, or a blend of the two.

Realism is serious, a depiction of what undisputedly is.
Surrealism takes what is real and warps it to convey a subtler meaning.

Layer Two: The layer below the surface is an area of unknown quantity. It is the Inferential Layer. This is the layer where inference and implication come into play, hints and allegations.

We show why the gun is drawn. Clues and hints imply reasons for the characters’ actions. The author offers ideas to explain how the shooter arrives at the point in the story where they squeeze the trigger, and the reader makes assumptions.

Authors drop clues and hints but allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.

In a murder mystery, the path to the moment the trigger was pulled is complicated. Perhaps no one knows exactly what led to it, but the author’s task is to include enough clues, hints, and allegations without an info dump.

Authors insert clues that imply something to the reader, hints that may be red herrings. One meaning is displayed on the surface, but by using hints and clues, we enclose the secrets within the narrative. The message (inference) in the story is conveyed to the reader, but only if they pick up on the clues.

The author has to do their job well because we want the reader to feel as if they have earned the information they are gaining. They must be able to deduce what you imply. A reader can only extrapolate knowledge from the information the author offers them.

Serious readers want this layer to mean something on a level that isn’t obvious. They want to experience that feeling of triumph for having caught the meaning. That surge of endorphins keeps them involved and makes them want more of your work.

This middle layer is, in my opinion, the toughest layer for an author to get a grip on.

Below and sort of intertwined with the middle layer is Layer Three, the Interpretive Layer. This layer will be shallower in Romance novels because the point of the book isn’t a deeper meaning. It’s interpersonal relationships on a surface level. However, there will still be some areas of mystery that aren’t spelled out completely because the interpersonal intrigues are the story.

Books for younger readers might also be less deep on this level because they don’t yet have the real-world experience to understand what is implied.

Layer three is comprised of:

Themes
Commentary
Message
Symbolism
Archetypes

This layer is sometimes the easiest for me to discuss because we are dealing with finite concepts. Theme is one of my favorite subjects to write about, as is symbolism. It is an aspect of the narrative I haven’t talked about lately, nor have I really discussed conveying messages. Archetype is another facet I haven’t discussed recently, and yet it is a fundamental underpinning of character building.

For the purposes of this post, commentary is the word that describes the expression of opinions or explanations about an event or situation. Perhaps you are writing a narrative that explores current real-world morals and hypocrisies. If so, this is an important aspect of your work.

I am looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of the subtler, more abstract aspects of writing as I explore narrative depth. As always, when I come across a book or website with good information, I will share it with you.

In the meantime, a good core textbook is “Story” by Robert McKee. If you haven’t already gotten it, you might want to. It can be found second-hand at Amazon.

Another excellent and more affordable textbook for this is “Damn Fine Story” by Chuck Wendig. Chuck delivers his wisdom in pithy, witty, concise packets. If you fear potty-mouth, don’t buy it. However, if you have the courage to be challenged, this is the book for you.

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Tagged as depth in writing, layers of the story, the inferential layer of a story, writing

February 16, 2026 · 6:00 am

Building strength as a writer #writing

This last week, I edited a paper that my grandson had to submit to his literature class at his college. That experience sparked the realization that many people make it all the way through school without learning even a few of the more common rules for punctuating written English.

Yet many of these people have stories they are bursting to write. But they are embarrassed to share them. Or perhaps they shared their first attempt with someone who either brushed them off or was harshly critical.

Many authors just out of school know they lack knowledge of punctuation mechanics but feel unworthy and a little traumatized. They don’t know where to get the information they need. If that is your situation, I have compiled a list of 7 easy-to-remember rules of punctuation, which was posted on May 26, 2025.

Feel free to bookmark that post and refer back to it as needed.

I have learned a great deal by reading the Chicago Manual of Style. It’s a behemoth of a book. Just the thought of reading, much less understanding this doorstop, is daunting to a new writer, and the price for the latest hardcover version is steep.

However, if you learn the seven basic rules discussed in my May 26th post, your work will be acceptable to most people. I will add links to several other good, affordable books on craft at the end of this post.

First of all, good writing conveys the most information with no unnecessary words. Bad writing is not a sin, if we understand that many problems can be resolved in the second draft, the stage known as revisions.

Passive phrasing, skipped punctuation, and garbled cut-and-paste issues are all codes for the author. The overuse of modifiers and descriptors are first-draft signals that tell us what we need to rephrase or show more clearly.

For example:

The tree was actually covered in red leaves.

This is a simple, passively phrased sentence, but it is properly punctuated. The sentence begins with a capital letter, as it should, and ends with a period (full stop). However, it is an example of bad writing, the kind of thing we lay down in the first draft when we are just trying to get the whole story down.

It is passive rather than active, and the word “actually” isn’t necessary.

Red leaves covered the tree.

The revision expresses the same idea, using many of the same words. It is active, and by rephrasing it, we conveyed the same idea with fewer words. The author moved the noun and its descriptor (red leaves) to the front of the sentence, followed by the verb (covered) and the subject of the sentence (the tree). The author also removed the words “was” and “in” because they aren’t needed and would have fluffed up the word count.

Using too many words to convey an idea leads to run-on sentences. It confuses the reader and makes what could be good scenes uninteresting.

The order in which you place your words changes the tone of the narrative. When I begin revisions, I do a global search for “ly” words. I look at each instance and see how they fit into that context.

I also look for passive phrasing and the various forms of “to be,” such as was, were, and had been. They are needed in some places, but overuse of them weakens the prose.

If a word or phrase weakens the narrative, I change it to a simpler form or remove it and rewrite the sentence.

I DON’T recommend going through and getting rid of every adjective or adverb, although some gurus will say just that. They forget that words like bare are adjectives, and so is barely. Many descriptors and modifiers are power words.

If you take out the power words, you gut your prose.
Also, words like every and very are part of larger words, such as everything. Cutting those words via a global search will ruin your manuscript.

Context is everything. Take the time to look at each example of the offending words and change them individually. You have already spent months writing that novel. Why not take a few days to do the job well?

Sentence structure matters. Where you place an adjective relative to the noun they are describing affects a reader’s perception. Adjectives work best when showing us what the point-of-view characters see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. The following sentence is an example I have used before:

Sunlight glared over the ice, a cold fire in the sky that cast no warmth but burned the eyes.

In the above sentence, the essential parts are structured this way: noun – verb (sunlight glared), adjective – noun (cold fire), verb – adjective – noun (cast no warmth), and finally, verb-article-noun (burned the eyes). Lead with the action or noun, follow with a strong modifier, and the sentence conveys what is intended but isn’t weakened by the modifiers.

The above scene could be shown in many ways, but a paragraph’s worth of world-building is pared down to 19 words, three of which are action words.

William Shakespeare understood the beauty and strength that powerful words written with minimal fluff can add to ordinary prose. Consider this line from his play, As You Like It, written in 1599:

It strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. — As You Like It, Wm. Shakespeare, 1599.

What brilliant imagery Shakespeare employed in that sentence. He used strong words with powerful meaning: strikes, dead, great, reckoning, and little. Those words have visual impact. They convey emotion, which is what we all hope to do with our work.

As your reward for reading this post, here is the list of my current favorite books on the craft of writing. I suggest getting these in hardback, as it is much easier to find what you need. They can also be found used on Amazon, an option for cash-strapped authors.

To learn the basics:

The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation ($11.99 US for Kindle, $22.11 hardcover). Great reference material at much lower cost than the Chicago Manual of Style, which runs around $55.00 or more.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms: ($5.99 Kindle, $19.99 hardcover). Find the alternatives to crutch words and learn to use them to the best effect.

To learn ways to fine-tune your manuscript:

Activate: a thesaurus of actions & tactics for dynamic genre fiction ($7.99 Kindle, $23.99 paperback). Written by Damon Suede, this is a great primer to help you write lean, descriptive prose.

Damn Fine Story ($15.99 Kindle, $18.99 paperback). Written by Chuck Wendig, this book is filled with information about how stories are constructed to help you write a cohesive narrative.

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February 9, 2026 · 6:00 am

Revisions part 2 – Allegory, Symbolism, and Foreshadowing #writing

Allegory and symbolism are important tools in a writer’s toolbox. They are similar to each other but different and often misunderstood. The difference between them is in how they are presented.

An allegory is a narrative, a moral lesson in the form of a story, heavy with symbolism.
Symbolism is a literary device that uses one thing (an item, a theme, a visual reference, etc.) throughout the narrative to represent something else or to create an atmosphere and mood.

Using these tools in worldbuilding offers us a way to avoid clumsy info dumps to imply a particular atmosphere, underscoring a theme. We can increase the reader’s awareness of possible danger if that is our desire. It involves placing symbolism into the story’s visual environment.

Symbolism helps create mood and atmosphere with fewer words. When certain objects are part of the world, what the characters see, hear, and smell is subliminal to the reader. But these clues evoke an emotional response in the reader, encouraging them to stay with the story.

Take the classic Gothic novel Wuthering Heights. Interest in Emily Brontë’s work has never been greater, with a new movie based on the novel’s characters and setting.

The movie strays widely from the novel. The novel is a tragedy delving into deeply disturbed personalities more than it is a romance.

It’s not an allegory because it doesn’t explore a moral or symbolic meaning beyond its obvious story. Brontë’s symbolism in her world-building supports and underscores the themes of love, revenge, and social class.

The way Emily Brontë employed atmosphere in Wuthering Heights is stellar. I would love to achieve that level of world-building.

We can find allegories in nearly any written narrative because humans love making connections and often imagine them where none exist. While Wuthering Heights is not considered an allegory in the literary sense, it is heavily symbolic.

Spark Notes says:

The constant emphasis on landscape within the text of Wuthering Heights endows the setting with symbolic importance. This landscape is comprised primarily of moors: wide, wild expanses, high but somewhat soggy, and thus infertile. Moorland cannot be cultivated, and its uniformity makes navigation difficult. It features particularly waterlogged patches in which people could potentially drown. (This possibility is mentioned several times in Wuthering Heights.) Thus, the moors serve very well as symbols of the wild threat posed by nature. As the setting for the beginnings of Catherine and Heathcliff’s bond (the two play on the moors during childhood), the moorland transfers its symbolic associations onto the love affair.

The two large estates within the book create a pocket world of sorts, where little, if anything, lies beyond their existence. Thus, windows both literal and figurative serve to showcase what exists on the other side while still keeping the characters trapped. [1] Wuthering Heights: Symbols | SparkNotes

Symbolism on its own is a powerful tool. We can show more with fewer words. But while a tale may be heavily layered with symbolism, it might not be an allegory.

So, what is an allegory?

The storytelling in The Matrix series of movies is a brilliant example of an allegory. The Matrix was written by The Wachowskis. The narrative is an allegory for Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a depiction of reality and illusion. The movies in the series employ heavy symbolism in both the setting and conversations to drive home the multilayered themes of humankind, machine, fate, and free will.

In The Matrix, reality and illusion are portrayed with layers of symbolism:

The names of the characters
The words used in conversations
The androgynous clothes they wear

Everything on the set or mentioned in conversations underscores those themes, including the lighting. Inside The Matrix, the world is bathed in a green light, as if through a green-tinted lens. In the real world, the lighting is harsher, unfiltered.

Everything that appears or is said onscreen in the movie is symbolic and supports one of the underlying concepts. When Morpheus later asks Neo to choose between a red pill and a blue pill, he essentially offers the choice between fate and free will.

We incorporate symbolism and allegory into the environment during worldbuilding to create mood and atmosphere.

These subliminal impressions affect our (the reader’s) mood and emotions, drawing us deeper into that world. These are separate but entwined forces, and they can create an emotion in the reader, such as a sense of foreboding, which is a subtler form of foreshadowing.

In real life, emotion is the experience of contrast, of transitioning from negative to positive emotional energy, and back again.

In a powerful story, symbolism, allegory, or both exist on the surface and in the subtext. Without the feelings and emotions the writer injects into the story, our characters do a zombie-like shuffle to the end, leaving the reader feeling robbed.

Setting is only a place. It is not atmosphere. Mood, atmosphere, and emotion are part of the inferential layer of a story.

How a setting is shown contributes to the atmosphere. Atmosphere is created as much by odors, scents, ambient sounds, and visuals as by the characters’ moods and emotions. Emily Brontë‘s moors and windows are subliminal background elements, but they are also foreshadowing. They convey information to the reader on a subconscious level, supporting the actions and conversations of her characters.

In my own work, I want to convey mood and atmosphere without resorting to an info dump. But what symbols can I place in the environment of my current work-in-progress to help build suspense? I need to create a list and add it to my outline as I go.

Side note: Just because I use a plan doesn’t mean you have to. It’s just how I work.

For me, themes are important, and a powerful theme inspires me to tell a story. A strong theme can offer suggestions and symbols when we imagine the world we are creating. I note these ideas in the outline, so I don’t lose track of them.

Another side note: Don’t be surprised if a casual reader doesn’t notice the symbolism you worked so hard on. They won’t see symbolism on a conscious level. However, it will reinforce the mood and atmosphere, keeping them reading.

Dedicated readers love work that holds up on closer examination, enjoying work with layers of depth, work they can read again and again and always find something new in it.

On the surface, the story and the characters who live it out are what make a book great. Deeper down, the allegories and symbolisms embedded in the narrative sink into the reader’s subconscious, stirring thoughts and raising ideas they might not otherwise have considered.

Previous in this series: Revisions, part 1: Shakespeare and the Art of Foreshadowing #writing | Life in the Realm of Fantasy

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Tag Archives: writing

Sometimes I want to write, but words fail me #writing

Making a fantasy map #writing

Foundations of Worldbuilding: maps #writing

Worldbuilding – Calendars and Maps #writing

Planning a series #writing

Successful revisions #writing

Microsoft, you are p**sing me off, and other random rants #writing

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Exploring Depth #writing

Building strength as a writer #writing

First of all, good writing conveys the most information with no unnecessary words. Bad writing is not a sin, if we understand that many problems can be resolved in the second draft, the stage known as revisions.

Revisions part 2 – Allegory, Symbolism, and Foreshadowing #writing

So, what is an allegory?

Setting is only a place. It is not atmosphere. Mood, atmosphere, and emotion are part of the inferential layer of a story.

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First of all, good writing conveys the most information with no unnecessary words. Bad writing is not a sin, if we understand that many problems can be resolved in the second draft, the stage known as revisions.

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So, what is an allegory?

Setting is only a place. It is not atmosphere. Mood, atmosphere, and emotion are part of the inferential layer of a story.

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