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While we get some fuctinolaties coded, ive posted some new Reviews for books i’ve read. Firstly Artemis by Andy Weir and Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Alsso i will be at The Auckland Writers Festival viewing Imagined Futures and The event of Harvey as well. So until those functions are ready, I’ll post some book reviews […]

In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, the annual November challenge to write 50 thousand words in 30 days, I have something quick and simple to say. Even though this challenge creates the culture of writing even if it does not make sense or is total nonsense, I have a caveat to this. You don’t have to […]

For those of you who are partaking in the 2024 National Novel Writing Month, I have a short message for you. You are nearly at the halfway checkpoint. Keep going. Keep writing. Keep creating. And remember to write because you find joy in it, because you feel you must. Write for writing’s sake. Don’t worry […]

Brandon Sanderson is the bestselling author of the Mistborn series. He was a lecturer who taught Sci fi and fantasy writing at Brigham Young University. His 2020 lecture series are available for free on Youtube. He has earned my respect in more ways than one and is one of my mentors for a reason. In […]

At times, the plethora of writing advice out there can be daunting and overwhelming. At other times, you may find a gem amongst the rubble, one that takes your writing journey to better and higher places. “Write what you know” is common writing advice.  We tell this to young and aspiring writers starting out and […]

All mini arcs must be in the story for a reason and must show something about the character whether that is the character’s motivation, flaws or proactiveness. Similarly, dialogue arcs need to be there for a reason, also showing an aspect of character or moving the plot forwards. Maybe the dialogue is for the purpose […]

Characters must be proactive. This comes down to motivation. Why do characters act and behave the way they do? What drives them? This is important to establish early on during act 1. This is why there is a bit of breathing room, an emotional beat between the inciting incident and the beginning of Act 2. […]

The four tools of characterization and story telling, as mentioned last week, are used to show the five areas of character which are as follows, likability, proactivity, competence, flaws and arc. But today, we are only going to talk about likable characters. A big part of a likable character is how well readers can relate […]

Character-driven stories are more captivating and engaging than plot driven stories. Readers wants a story with characters whom they can relate to and emotionally invest in. Reading a book takes time and energy and one way that writers can respect that time, is by creating these captivating characters with intriguing storylines for readers to spend […]

At the Indie Writer’s Festival, I had the privilege of attending a writing workshop hosted by Avi Jones. Jones is the author of Swim and Max, both of which took six years to make. The writing exercise that he led us through was amazing and eye opening. It taught me in a practical way how […]