Monthly Archives: November 2014

Thanksgiving Break

Posted on November 24, 2014 by J. Sevick

Hi all, I’ve decided to take a short break this Thanksgiving week. I’ll be back next Monday–in December! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone. To those of you working on NaNoWriMo–you’re almost there! Just writing at all … Continue reading →

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Staring into the Abyss: Finding the Characters

Posted on November 21, 2014 by J. Sevick

Usually, my ideas start with a world. Then I try to find the conflict, the story, and maybe some of the plot. This involves finding the protagonist, the antagonist, maybe a few other key players. But at some point, the … Continue reading →

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Dealing with Rejection

Posted on November 19, 2014 by J. Sevick

Getting rejected sucks. There’s no denying it—and it’s perfectly okay to feel sad when that rejection letter (or more commonly now, e-mail) rolls in. Feel the pain; have a cry if you need to; comfort yourself in whatever way you … Continue reading →

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Staring into the Abyss: Finding the Plot

Posted on November 17, 2014 by J. Sevick

So you have an idea. Maybe it’s a character, maybe it’s a world, maybe it’s just a genre—or maybe you’re lucky and it’s a conflict. If you’re anything like me, ideas are everywhere. But stories are harder to come by. … Continue reading →

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Protagonists and Their Authors

Posted on November 14, 2014 by J. Sevick

There’s a snide little comment that pops up in reviews and online criticism of novels now and again, about how the protagonist is “just a self-insert for the author.” It’s meant as a flaw, even grounds for dismissal. I remember … Continue reading →

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Story vs. Tropes

Posted on November 12, 2014 by J. Sevick

In a lot of circles of discussion, reviews and writing advice, there’s an intense awareness of tropes. Hardly a story goes by without some accusation of a trope being thrown at it: “Mary Sue,” “fridging,” “the chosen one,” etc. Tropes … Continue reading →

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Micro-Editing, or Why Editing on a Computer is Easier

Posted on November 10, 2014 by J. Sevick

There comes a point, when you’ve read your work several times, and each sentence seems to work—that you feel like you’re done. And maybe you are. But there’s one other stage of editing that can really only be done on … Continue reading →

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The Read-Aloud

Posted on November 7, 2014 by J. Sevick

It’s a bit of common writing advice to read your work aloud as a part of the editing process. Sounds reasonable enough—it lets you hear your dialogue and whether or not it sounds natural; gives you a sense of clumsy … Continue reading →

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Pushing through the Suck

Posted on November 5, 2014 by J. Sevick

For all those out there attempting NaNoWriMo, I wish you good luck! You got this! But there may come a time, early in the process or late, where you have to push through the feeling of “suck.” The reason I’ve … Continue reading →

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Receiving Feedback

Posted on November 3, 2014 by J. Sevick

When you finally send your work out into the world to be read, you have to be prepared for what will come back (if you ask for feedback). Depending on who reads it and what sort of reader they are, … Continue reading →

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