144 – Mastering The Middle

Last week in the podcast, I shared five tips for a successful NaNoWriMo. Lots of people have told me it helped get them through the first week so: yay!

victory

In this week’s episode I talk about the difficulties of reaching the middle of creativity challenge at the exact same moment you reach the midpoint of the novel.

(Short story writers, stay with me because a lot of what I’m going to talk about applies to you too!)

You are not imagining things: this is hard. The middle of a novel is the notoriously hard, and the middle of the challenge is hard for different reasons.

The Midpoint of the Challenge

The midpoint of the challenge is tough because you’re tired. The novelty has worn off. You’ve started to question why are you ever decided to put in all this work. And you may feel that your story isn’t worth the effort.

Allow me to help.

Continue reading “144 – Mastering The Middle”

5 Tips for A Successful NaNoWriMo

It is November and you know what that means? The whole writing world has been taken over by NaNoWriMo. 

As someone who has been participating in and leading creative challenges for over a decade, I have some tips to help you make the most of this month of extreme creativity.

Continue reading “5 Tips for A Successful NaNoWriMo”

StoryADay+NaNoWriMo Mashup Pt. II

Last year I got together with Marya Brennan, the director of NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers’ program to talk about short stories.

We had so much fun that we decided to do it again this year. This time we took a close look at Flash Fiction. Here’s a replay of the livestream.

If you have any young people in your life, they may want to enter the NaNoWriMo YWP’s Flash Fiction Contest, running now (closing date: May 31)

118 – UnStick Your Writing During NaNoWriMo, Part 2

Advice about how to get unstuck when you still have 30,000 words to write!

RESOURCES:

Unsticking Yourself thread on Twitter: https://stada.me/unstuck

Tony Conaway’s article on public readings: https://stada.me/tonytalk

Further reading: What To Do When You’re Stuck In The Middle of Your Novel, (https://stada.me/wdstuck) from Writer’s Digest, with advice from the excellent DIYMFA book by Gabriela Pereira 
James Scott Bell’s book: Write Your Novel From The Middle

Another new episode of Write Every Day, Not “Some Day”

117 – Getting Unstuck During NaNoWriMo – Part 1

NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writers’ Month, is well underway. By this point in week two your story might have become a little bit, well, stuck.

In these next two episodes I share tips and advice from myself and others about how to get unstuck when you still have 30,000 words to write!

 

Unsticking Yourself thread on Twitter: https://stada.me/unstuck

Tony Conaway’s article on public readings: https://stada.me/tonytalk

Further reading: What To Do When You’re Stuck In The Middle of Your Novel, (https://stada.me/wdstuck) from Writer’s Digest, with advice from the excellent DIYMFA book by Gabriela Pereira 

James Scott Bell’s book: Write Your Novel From The Middle

 

 

Another new episode of Write Every Day, Not “Some Day”