Welcome to a rambly writing update! There’s a lot to cover, so let’s dive right in. A Finished Draft Finishing a draft is a quiet affair, though it feels like it shouldn’t be. While publishing is certainly a big deal, I almost feel like finishing the rough draft is more worthy of celebrating. Finishing a …
Continue reading May 2023 Writing Update: A Finished Draft, A Started Sequel, and A Rut
As a writer, I love good stories. There are some books, movies, and TV shows that continue to stick with me over the years, as well as excellent tales I’ve only recently discovered. Some I appreciate for their impact on my writing; others, I love simply because they excite me and move me. Trying to …
I’m slowly realizing two very true things about myself as a writer. First, patience seems to be a defining virtue in this season of my career. Second, I really hate whatever stage of the writing process I’m currently in. Okay, maybe that second point is a little dramatic. After all, if I really disliked writing, …
Continue reading How To Get Through Writing Your Rough Draft
Writing is hard. You’d think after a decade of serious writing, I’d have it figured out. But part of the problem for writing as long as I have? Story ideas grow and get tangled together and make it tricky to know how all the plots, characters, and world-building piece together. Tied up with that, with …
Continue reading March 2023 Writing Update: Rough Drafts Are…Rough
Wow, how time flies! This February marks five years since I created this website and embarked on the journey of blogging. Over the past five years, I’ve written more than 100 posts, averaging about 1,000 words per entry, meaning I’ve written at least 100,000 words for this website. That. Is. Crazy. (When I pulled out …
Continue reading What I’ve Learned From Five Years Of Blogging
Whether you’re a writer or not, new goals often accompany the New Year. For some, a New Year can bring a bit of disappointment when last year’s goals went unmet. Reflecting back on the previous year may bring up feelings of frustration and shame. Perhaps your writing goals were halted in their tracks by a …
Welcome to the final Writing Update of 2022! Today’s post will not only give a recap of my progress since my last update, but take a look back at the year as a whole. Let’s start with 2022 in review. Looking back at my writing goals, made at the start of this year, I ended …
Continue reading December 2022 Writing Update: Small Victories, Goals, and Looking To 2023
Back in my old theater days, I was typecast as the villain. I played Cinderella’s stepmother (twice), Shere Khan in the Jungle Book, and—one of my favorites—Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. I’ll admit, it feels rather empowering to be the bad guy, gliding across the stage, robed in black, the other actors trembling before you… Me …
Continue reading My Villain Manifesto: Reflections on Antagonists in Fiction
It has been a while since my last writing update, hasn’t it? While I aim to do these quarterly, to be honest… there hasn’t been much to update? I originally had this update on my calendar for July. Then I pushed it back to August. Then I just decided to scrap the summer update and …
Lately, I’ve been reading series that include novellas alongside full-length novels, which has brought up questions about the roles that novellas play in the overall story of a series and whether or not I think it’s a valuable practice. Specifically, back in July, I read the three Skyward Flight novellas connected to the Skyward series …
By Madelynn Orion 