dawn.vogel | July 16, 2024
My non-fiction, tongue-in-cheek, book of novel writing advice, An (Un)helpful Guide to Writing a Novel, is out today! Most books about writing a novel give you advice about plot and structure and stakes and more. This isn’t most books. Within the pages of An (Un)helpful Guide to Writing a Novel, you’ll find information about writing novels from […]
dawn.vogel | July 15, 2024
I had the idea to write a post about my revision process, but it occurred to me that it’s different depending on the length of the piece I’m revising. When I’m writing novella or novel length pieces, my revision wall is my go to method. But the revision wall is way too much when I’m […]
dawn.vogel | July 8, 2024
Another panel I was on at the WriteHive Online Conference was Historians on History. With a couple of other historians, archivists, and writers of historical fiction, we talked about doing research for our historical stories and how to avoid certain pitfalls of research rabbit holes (not always successful) and how to deal with difficult history […]
dawn.vogel | July 1, 2024
Many writers who are not perfectionists in other aspects of their life suddenly seem to develop this trait when faced with an imperfect draft. They become certain that if their first draft isn’t beautiful, it’s not worth calling it finished, and they tinker with it ceaselessly. I’m here to say: let it go. Your first […]
dawn.vogel | June 24, 2024
While talking about books and authors with my mother-in-law a couple of weeks ago, she realized she had read two of the books by a best-selling author we know, but she’d missed that there was a third book. I showed her the cover for the third book, to see if she recognized it (since she’d […]
dawn.vogel | June 18, 2024
I’ve spent a lot of time preparing to publish An (Un)helpful Guide to Writing a Novel, my non-fiction, tongue-in-cheek, guide for aspiring novel writers. In large part, some of the humor in this book is the fact that I do not enjoy writing novels, but I’ve got advice to share about the process. The other part […]
dawn.vogel | 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 […]
dawn.vogel | 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 […]
dawn.vogel | 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 […]
dawn.vogel | 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 […]
