Recent content by GlitterRain

I think spending time away from the piece, in combination with continuing to hone your craft (both by actively seeking out new writing knowledge and passively by reading other books similar to what you want to write), is the most surefire way to be able to spot weak points in your own writing...

I recently got a new black Stetson cowboy hat. I have not got a chance to wear it yet (I typically only wear hats if I’m going to be primarily outdoors), but this hat is definitely The One for me.

If it isn't fitting in your current story, but you really love it, you could always take it out, paste it into another document, change up the characters, setting, etc. a little, and rework it into a new story!

I agree that boredom is good for us. I think the ability to be able to pull out your phone at any moment and dissociate into it is unnatural and hurting society. I don’t know if I would say I’m trying to be more “bored,” because daydreaming for me isn’t boring, and that is what always happens...

I finally got the update I have been waiting months for this week. I have one more night on night shift, and then I get two weeks off to adjust! I need to fix my sleep. I don’t anticipate that being super hard; I think I just have to stick to a stringent sleep schedule, not oversleep, and be...

We’re drowning in excess. Excess instant gratification, among it. It makes everything less special. I just had a conversation with my dad about how he planned to watch To Kill a Mockingbird as a kid when it came on the TV twice or so a year (using the TV guidebook), before VHS was a thing. I...

When I was in college, I submitted poems to the college’s literary magazine. There was this one poem that I was so proud of (something to do with a dilapidated single-wide trailer that was very close to my parents house), and I was thinking about it recently. I went into my poems folder on my...

I’m in the camp of focus more on the feelings/emotions than what the characters are physically doing. This is also something that pretty much any author in the YA category is doing when they write these scenes, if you would be interested in some examples. The only time I would consider bringing...

I need relative quiet. I need to be alone, or at least alone in the sense of not knowing anyone else with me in a public place. If I’m around someone I know, they would need to be doing their own quiet thing, something where it is mutual that we would not want to distract each other. Sometimes...

Additionally, handwriting in margins would work. If you need a lot more room to edit, using the back of the page or stapling a blank page to the page in question would work. I think the type of revisions you’re doing is also going to affect how you revise. Developmental edits - you’re...

You absolutely don’t need to know everything about your characters. You can explore your characters as much as you want beyond the basics of what the plot requires. And the more you know doesn’t mean the more will actually be in the story. Think of it as an iceberg. What’s above the water is...

It absolutely would work. I haven’t ever written an entire novel-length manuscript on a smart phone, but when I was in high school, I wrote my very bad version 0 (maybe 40k words total) of what would become my first book on one (had to if I wanted to work on it at school). But it definitely...

My characters are the driving force behind my stories. I would say their personalities definitely influence the plot, probably similar to choose-your-path video games with the good and bad and in-between endings. If I modified their personalities enough, they wouldn’t participate in the plot, or...

@Rigor Mortis, thank you for the response! It’s very helpful. If I wanted to add in some more action, would it make sense if they actually did handcuff (but not arrest) the MC due to some other thing that he did before the book starts where he ran into the cops through something else he did or...

I’m working on a new first chapter for my trilogy. I’ve already completed a lot of it, but I have some questions I’m hoping to get some help with regarding how the rest should play out. Background: My MC, a moxie, reckless, slightly misanthropic, petty criminal and newly-turned 18 year old...