Category Archives: Writing

Congrats to those of you finishing Nanowrimo today! For a while now I’ve been tracking my writing time (and writing a program to analyze it, the results of which I’ll discuss I ever finish it (this is a programming exercise … Continue reading →

So I wrote this book. It’s an urban fantasy. Most of what I like to write and read is secondary-world fantasy (I’m not going to split hairs between epic, heroic, and sword and sorcery). I had fun writing it–got to … Continue reading →

Good luck to those of you writing madly this year. Once again I won’t be joining you. Although I had fun the two years I did it, and would enjoy doing it again, there’s a reason I’ve never done anything … Continue reading →

I am not into conlangs. I find the idea interesting, but not enough to spend time on it. However, most of the stories I write are set in other worlds, where it’s useful to have a few words of a … Continue reading →

Over the weekend we had a (very) brief discussion of passive voice vs passive language. Passive voice is an actual grammar thing, whereas passive language has more to do with style. I didn’t find much about it in my googling, … Continue reading →

Back in March, I mentioned that I’d been doing weekly writing exercises. Well, like most things that I don’t actually schedule a time slot for, I started procrastinating and then lost the habit. But a couple weeks ago I decided … Continue reading →

I used to detest revising books. Now that I’ve had more practice at it, I still dislike it. It just drags on and on and on… So I was thinking about ways to make the process more efficient so it … Continue reading →

First, a reminder for the local folks: My Toastmasters club (Toast of Champaign) is having a Guest Day tomorrow. We meet at noon in room C of the Champaign Public Library. There will be light refreshments. Anyway, I’m working on … Continue reading →

It seems like if the magic is widespread (everybody has it, or could have it if they wanted to learn), it doesn’t need to have a large cost, or any cost–cost exists partly as an equalizer and if everyone’s paying … Continue reading →

In the comments on last week’s post, Erin mentioned podcasts as a way of learning things while doing something else. I subscribe to a bunch of podcasts, though I don’t do a good job of keeping up with them. I … Continue reading →