Recent content by C.L Castle

Ah! I'll still try and finish the series though. I typically like that. But I'll see how I feel when I get there. After his I've got C.J Cherryh's Foreigner series lined up. =)

I use it as a smart thesaurus. "Come up with 30 synonyms for walking slowly." (List) "Come up with 30 more." (Here's where it gets interesting and sometimes misses the bus entirely.) I don't even trust it for research anymore. Perplexity's quality has either gone down or prompting has become...

I won't complain about that. 😁

If I wrote sentences like miss Austen, my editors would go whack. Because our market wouldn't have the patience to read them. It's sad to me. Everything needs to be short and chippy, otherwise no longer than 14 words or something.

I follow Holly Lisle's advice to only build what's needed for whatever part of the story, otherwise it gets out of hand pretty quickly. When worldbuilding it's easiest to base it on something real, and just exaggerate certain qualities of the place. This works well for contemporary stories...

Hi! I'll be 33 in April. I am pretty perfectionistic with the writing, especially for work. We need to keep a standard. But I'm trying to be a little more loosey-goosey with my own. That means not following the cookie-cutter type genre tropes which I write for work, a.k.a conflict conflict...

In the end, I took a couple of days off reading and my mood just tanked. I suppose it really is a dopamine booster for me and more beneficial than destructive. I'm reading during my writing break. Maybe she meant I should give it up so my brain can relax its language centers, but I think...

I wondered if audiobooks would be different but still satisfying? Or maybe I should try reading a genre completely different to the ones I write? Usually I have to make a conscious effort to take in what I read. Unless it's a particularly challenging classic like Pride and Prejudice, my...

My first thread to you all is asking for advice. Hah. I hope it's in the right place; I wasn't sure where to put it. For context I'm a ghostwriter. We are usually expected to produce a book very quickly, like a month and a half. But there is some time for me that passes between projects...

I've written a 90k fantasy novel on a smartphone by thumb and during work lunch hours. All I used was a tiny, lightweight markdown writer called WriterPlus. ;) Since, I've acquired a bluetooth keyboard and a little metal holder to prop up the phone on my lap. But smartphone writing has taken a...

I'm currently reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I've tried it a few months ago and reached about 25% on my Kindle when another book made stars twinkle before my eyes. So this time I'll be finishing the series. ;)

I'm Cam, a ghostwriter and avid reader looking for camaraderie. =) Writing can be such an isolating craft. The usual social media groups on Discord, X, etcetera leave a lot to be desired for me. Their short-form messaging doesn't allow me to build deeper relationships with people, and I'd like...