History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Short Stories at WriteHive Online Conference

| June 17, 2024

During the WriteHive Online Conference this a couple of weekends ago, I was one of the panelists for “Making Each Word Count: A Short Story Master Class.” We had a great conversation about writing and publishing short fiction, from our individual perspectives and offering advice to authors who are interested in that length. The other […]

Filling in the Details

| June 10, 2024

Last week, I talked about writing concisely, which is something I’m pretty good at. This week, I’m talking about the flipside of that, which is also one of my weaknesses as a writer–filling in the details. When I sit down to write, I generally picture the scene I’m writing as I go. In addition to […]

Learning to Write Concisely

| June 3, 2024

Some authors write long pieces, and when they get to the end, they realize they could benefit from learning to write more concisely. Other authors (like me) write very sparsely to begin with (and wind up having to flesh some things out during revisions). If you’re more in the former camp than the latter, here […]

The Anti-Planner is Now Available on Amazon!

| May 13, 2024

I’ve mentioned The Anti-Planner before, but I just found out it’s now available on Amazon! This is a fantastic book for people who deal with procrastination and executive disfunction and other forms of “don’t wanna.” You use the book to identify what sort of “don’t wanna” you’re dealing with, and then find options based on what’s […]

Social Media Strategies for Authors

| May 6, 2024

I recently came across Marie Vibbert’s post about her self promotion and social media strategies recently, which she concludes by looking at the impact (or lack thereof) on sales. It’s a great read, and her results fly against some of the common wisdom dispensed to authors. This is not to say that you should delete […]

Writing Tools: Before There Were Stars

| April 29, 2024

Before There Were Stars is a little different from most of the card-based writing tools I use. It’s designed to be a storytelling game rather than writing prompts, but the way the game is set up, it works well as both! In the game, you tell mythic stories about a fictional group of people, based […]

Advice for Speculative Fiction Writing

| April 8, 2024

If you’re looking for some helpful advice for speculative fiction writers, check out this article with some great suggestions about how you might refresh your speculative fiction writing! I think the advice presented here is useful for all levels of speculative fiction writers, whether you’re just getting started or whether you want to try something […]

Coping with Burnout

| March 25, 2024

Every so often, burnout rears its ugly head. For me, it usually happens most often when I’m trying to cram too much into too small of a space of time. But it can also happen when my day job gets particularly hectic, leaving me feeling drained and unable to do anything more when I get […]

Have You Left a Book Review Lately?

| March 18, 2024

If you’re a reader (and if you’re not, I’m a little confused about what brought you to my website) or writer, have you left a book review for someone lately? Even if your review is short and sweet (“Loved it!” and “Great read!” are both good options), it helps writers out immensely when people review […]

Ideas for Genre Mashups

| March 11, 2024

On Friday, the writing prompts were related to genre mashups, and today, I’m sharing an article from one of the Story Engine folks on how you can use the Story Engine cards to create mashed-up genre story plots. The Story Engine cards are among my favorite card-based writing tools, so it’s neat to see these […]