History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Thankfulness: Writer’s Groups

| November 20, 2023

As Thanksgiving approaches, thoughts often turn to the things we’re thankful for in the world. For me, I’m thankful for the many, many writer’s communities I’ve found myself a part of over the years I’ve been writing. At first, I was part of a small, in-person, writer’s group, which spanned a good chunk of the […]

WriteHive Panel: Believable Technology in Fiction

| November 13, 2023

One of the panels I watched from the WriteHive online conference was Believable Technology in Fiction. It was a great panel about how to make technology work in your fiction, most often but not always science fiction. The panelists started by talking about technology on the whole, defining it as something that solves a problem […]

Interview with Ada Hoffmann

| November 6, 2023

Today, I’m chatting with Ada Hoffmann, author of the forthcoming collection Resurrections from Apex Book Company! DV: Tell us a little about yourself and your writing. AH: Hi! My name is Ada Hoffmann. My pronouns are they/them. I live in Canada, teach cognitive science at a university, and write stories. I also have a huge interest […]

WriteHive Panel: Breadcrumbs in Fiction: Building a Mystery

| October 30, 2023

One of the panels I watched from the WriteHive online conference was Breadcrumbs in Fiction: Building a Mystery. Having written a mystery novella, and wanting to write more in that series, I was particularly interested in learning how to do it better! The panelists talked about the differences between breadcrumbs, red herrings, and facts, and […]

Sci-Fi Inspiring Science?

| October 23, 2023

People are accustomed to scientific developments inspiring science fiction, but what about the other way around? At the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, they do exactly that! They look at science fiction works for technologies described within that might become plausible inventions. This article about the program talks about some […]

WriteHive Panel: How to Subvert Tropes

| October 16, 2023

One of the WriteHive online conference panels I watched was How to Subvert Tropes. This panel talked about what tropes are, when they become cliches, and how to then twist those tropes to make them fresh again. The panel started out by talking about how tropes are the building blocks of stories that establish trust […]

Writing Tools: Writer Emergency Pack

| October 9, 2023

I’ve accumulated a large collection of card-based writing tools, each of which is useful to different parts of my writing process. So I’ve decided to do a series of posts about the various decks I own and how I use them in my writing. It’s been a while since I’ve added a new deck to […]

WriteHive Panel: How to Self-Edit Like a Developmental Editor

| October 2, 2023

One of the WriteHive online conference panels I watched was a presentation on How to Self-Edit Like a Developmental Editor. Even though I am an editor, developmental editing is one of the places where I’d like to increase my skills, and getting some tips and tricks that can help me practice these things on my […]

Stephen Fry on Diction and Poetics Today

| September 25, 2023

As I mentioned previously, I’m working through Stephen Fry’s The Ode Less Travelled very slowly to absorb as much wisdom as I can about writing poetry. This week’s post (the final one!) covers Chapter 4 on Diction and Poetics Today. Most of this chapter is Stephen Fry talking about how poetry has moved him and some of […]

Interview with Zilla Novikov

| September 20, 2023

Today, I’m talking with Zilla Novikov, author of fiction and a fantastic cookbook! Read on to learn more! DV: Tell me a little about yourself and your writing. ZN: I’m Zilla Novikov (she/her), a depressed millennial who is very tired of late-stage capitalism. Turns out, that’s an endless font of story ideas. People tell me […]