dawn.vogel | April 6, 2020
Acrostic poems are a fairly simple form–you spell out a word with the first letter of each line of your poem. But there are variations that can make the form more fun! What if both the first letter of each line and the last letter of each line spell out two different words, or if […]
dawn.vogel | March 30, 2020
When I’m working in the office, I’m able to draw a solid line between work and writing. I can get a little bit of writing stuff done in the morning before my work day starts, and during my lunch break. But now that I’m working from home full-time (and have been for a couple of […]
dawn.vogel | March 23, 2020
Many authors I know have recently found it a lot harder to get any writing done. Whether they’re adjusting to a new work-from-home lifestyle, or have more of their family members in their previously quiet house, social distancing and self-isolation have an impact on productivity. So too do the frequent news updates and the overall […]
dawn.vogel | March 16, 2020
One of the things that I realized when I was working on the synopsis for my novel was that it’s a fantastic way to find all of those plot holes that still exist in your manuscript. When you have to break down all of the things that happen in the novel, you realize where you’ve […]
dawn.vogel | March 9, 2020
The cento is a fun poetry form to play with, because it’s all about borrowing lines from other poems and turning them into something new. It’s a form of found poetry, a bit like a patchwork quilt. It can be a fun way to mix together a handful of similarly themed poems, or to take […]
dawn.vogel | March 2, 2020
Since I’ve been working on my synopsis for a novel recently, I’ve put a lot of thought into how to construct a synopsis. Thankfully, a lot of other people have thought about this too! Shalee McArthur offers a five-step plan for writing a synopsis that I’ve found helpful, particularly for coming up with a short […]
dawn.vogel | February 24, 2020
I’ve been working through revisions on a novel since the beginning of 2020, and I’m finally reaching the end of those. But I wanted to show off the tool that I’ve been using to help with those revisions–my Revision Wall. Some people use post-it notes to do something similar, but I needed a) more space […]
dawn.vogel | February 17, 2020
Writers are told to vary their sentence length to make their prose interesting, so that readers don’t fall into a rhythm or pattern with their reading. This article talks about the use of complex sentences to create compelling and emotional prose. There are a number of examples of famous writers who have done this, followed […]
dawn.vogel | February 10, 2020
Haiku is a poetry form that many people learned as early as grade school, when it was very simply defined as “three lines, with five, seven, and five syllables.” And while that is the format of a haiku, it’s not exactly what a haiku would be in Japanese. One of the major differences is the […]
dawn.vogel | February 3, 2020
Most people use plot or characters to make their stories go, but this article presents some other options for short story engines. It’s a very interesting read that gave me some ideas for potential future stories. It also includes some exercises for trying out some of these alternative engines, which is a fantastic place to […]
