History That Never Was

Home of Dawn Vogel: Writer, Historian, Geek

Writing When Your Day Job is Writing Too

| 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 […]

When Planning Goes Awry

| 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 […]

Board Games for Writers

| 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 […]

Upcoming Awards Conferences Online!

| 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 […]

Sentence Structure for Compelling Prose

| 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 […]

Farscape: No One is Nice

| 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 […]

When a Story Doesn’t Work

| 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 […]

Writing Lots!

| September 23, 2019

Last week, I hosted a guest post from Kurt Pankau, and he returned the favor by hosting a guest post from me! I wrote about how I’ve increased my writing output and the ways in which I get so much writing done. You can read all about it here!

Guest Post: I’m the Bad Guy, Duh

| September 16, 2019

Hi, I’m Kurt, and I’m doing a guest post here on Dawn’s blog. I write mostly sci-fi, most of it silly, and you can learn more about me here and here. Today, I’m going to talk about bad guys. Let’s say you’re writing a story about a grizzled space marine saving the day from aliens. […]

Growing as a Short Story Writer

| May 20, 2019

I started writing regularly in 2009 and lucked out by selling my first short story early in 2010. After that, things were a bit more hit and miss for a while. Between 2010 and 2014, I made a total of 11 story sales, some of them for no payment, and mostly for very small payments. […]