Tag: fiction
-
Goal: Improving my Book Openings
New year, new retrospective on my strengths and weaknesses as a writer! In 2024, I made progress with plot, character arcs and incorporating themes into them. I learnt to dial up the environment and characters, and how to merge scenes so that they serve multiple purposes. I focussed on the climactic sequence and the resolution,…
-
Bound to Succeed Eventually
So that post from last year was a bit of a downer, huh! I was feeling very doom and gloom, dragging my feet from rewrites to edits and staring at the words with empty eyes… Nothing was going to get better, I was never going to be good enough, why bother chasing my dreams? It’s…
-
My Favourite Middle-grade Books of 2024
Hello! I meant to post a lot this year, but depression and anemia did a pincer movement and caught me out! So let’s look back at what I read in 2024! I read 8 middle-grade novels this year (so far), so let’s go through them! (No Spoilers.) Nura and the Immortal Palace by M.T. Khan…
-
Doomed to Fail Over and Over
Hello there! After finishing the first draft of my current book project (Code Name: No Footings) at the end of March, I took a break of a month in order to reset, work on fun projects and get the story out of my head. Then I picked up the draft at the start of May,…
-
I finished the first draft!
Sorry, I skipped the February check-in since I was already so close to finishing the first draft. It seemed daft not to wait a couple of extra weeks to give this update instead! My goal was initially to finish the first draft of my current middle-grade novel by the end of March, but then I…
-
Writings and doings: January
This is the first hybrid ‘Writings from write-ins’ and general monthly writing update! If you’re only here to see how my monthly goals are coming along, skip to the end! Writings from Write-ins Write-ins are an activity in which a group of writers create flash fiction or ramblings according to a series of random, timed…
-
2024 Goals and Blog Plan
Hi! Just a quick one today! In my 2023 Writing Retrospective post, I listed some of the ongoing projects I was working on in the second half of last year. Splitting my focus between so many books meant I didn’t finish any of them. As we know, the only books you can edit, query and…
-
Writings from write-ins 3: December
More writings from the weekly write-ins! As a refresher, a write-in is a fun event/activity meant to challenge your creativity by making you come up with and write ideas on the spot. The host gives random prompts, and the participants then try to write something related to that prompt within a very short amount of…
-
My Favourite Book of 2023
(TL;DR: it’s What you are looking for is in the library by Michiko Aoyama, translated into English by Alison Watts.) I keep a spreadsheet of the books I finish reading every year, with each entry scored out of twenty in a system-less vibe-based way. I also take extensive notes on things like plot, characterisation and…
-
How much choreography is too much?
In my recent post about unlearning fanfic-writing habits, I said that over-choreographing is the one I find most difficult to shake. Hopefully writing about over-choreographing will help me to do that. What do I mean by choreography? Choreography in books is not bad. In fact, it’s generally a good thing. This is where everything happens.…
Non Hughes 