dawn.vogel | December 20, 2021
For the first time in a while, I tried to complete NaNoWriMo this November. If you’re not familiar with this annual event, it involves writing 50,000 words in the month of November. Which, for the record, is sort of a lot. I first tried NaNoWriMo in 2009, and I won … technically, in that I […]
dawn.vogel | November 1, 2021
One thing that’s been helpful to my writing in the past year and a half is that the fact that I haven’t been traveling at all. Since March 2020, we’ve only spent one night away from home, which means that some of the advice I’m talking about today really hasn’t been put to use in […]
dawn.vogel | September 22, 2021
If you’re a writer, you may not have a lot of time to devote to playing video games. But this article on E. M. Welsh’s blog suggest that there are 10 indie video games that writers should play. As she explains, “engaging with new mediums is essential to improving your abilities as a storyteller in […]
dawn.vogel | September 20, 2021
Some fiction authors find themselves drawn to day jobs that also take advantage of their writing skills. But then, you can end up in a position where both your day job and your hobby (or secondary job) involve putting words on paper, which can wind up limiting your creativity in one or both venues. On […]
dawn.vogel | September 6, 2021
I am very much a planner. I have spreadsheets and planner books and to-do lists that keep me on track with my writing. And even though I make adjustments to them all the time, I’m NEVER without a plan. However, I was supposed to undergo surgery on September 1st. In anticipation of that, I cleared […]
dawn.vogel | August 25, 2021
If you’ve ever got a group of writers together, whether they’re trying to get writing done or not, odds are that you will eventually wind up NOT getting writing done. When that happens, why not get your writer friends to play some board games? This article lists 15 board games that can help writers write […]
dawn.vogel | May 17, 2021
A lot of conventions and conferences made a quick pivot to online versions last spring, and now that people have tried various platforms to see what works and what doesn’t, many are continuing online events this year. The Nebulas Conference is online again, with the conference running June 4-6 and the awards presented on the […]
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 | October 9, 2019
We’ve recently finished watching the first season of Farscape, and as we were getting toward the end of the season, a character from earlier on (Gilina) came back. In her previous appearance, she’d helped the crew, but I found myself expecting her to betray them at any moment. I took a step back and thought about […]
dawn.vogel | October 7, 2019
When I get an idea for a story, I generally try to see that story through to the end. I’m a firm subscriber to the maxim that “perfect is the opposite of done,” so I try my hardest to get a draft finished before I start poking at it. But sometimes, I get that story […]
