A Decade of Discoveries as a Fiction Writer

A decade is a beautifully fulsome length of time, as evidenced by our fascination with looking at the 1900s in ten-year blocks, juxtaposing historical events and fashion trends and pop culture!

Back in 2014, I had already been writing for over ten years, off and on, but I knew I was nowhere close to knowing all I needed to know about fiction writing, and furthermore that I could never possibly reach that level of knowledge - I'd never want to! Discoveries, often made by diving deeper rather than wider, are one of the joys of being creative, and the past ten years have given me plenty of those.

While I've shared a number of my creative explorations and innovations before on Something Delicious, some of them never made it into any blog posts, either because they just didn't quite fit or weren't enough to make up a whole post on their own.

This is the last post I'll likely share on Something Delicious (more about that at the end 😉✨), and so this seemed like the perfect time to tumble this medley of discoveries onto the page.

First Steps for New Fiction Writers

Setting off on a fiction writing journey can overwhelm even the most excited, steadfast new writers. How does one make that very first step?

What follows here is not the only way to begin, but it's one particular way, and one of the best things we can do when we're new to something is just decide to start. So now that you're here, on this page, I hope you'll give it a try! The world always needs more creative souls to nurture their imaginative inclinations. ✨

Think of the ideas that follow as guidelines rather than a step-by-step list to be strictly adhered to. The aim here is to help you set off on your journey, not load you down with a cartful of baggage right here in the prologue! Bound lightly along these stepping stones, try the ones that feel right, and before you know it, you'll have taken your first steps on a lifelong creative adventure.

Now, where to begin?

Writing Letters: a Marvellous Way to Understand Characters

As a child of the '90s, I'm no stranger to epistolary stories. They were everywhere when I was growing up: Jaclyn Moriarty's Feeling Sorry for Celia, Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries, the enthrallingly haunting Griffin & Sabine; and many, many more.

Stories written in diary and letter form, and all their modern equivalents, consistently come back into style (a trend that goes back centuries), and it's not hard to see why.

These aren't the words of a distant narrator, high in the sky. These are the words of the characters themselves, right in front of us on the page, in all their intimacy.

Naturally, this still leaves plenty of room for drama and suspense. In an epistolary story, we're completely dependent on what the characters choose to share with others and how honest they're prepared to be, even for an audience of one in the pages of a journal.

There are few better ways to hear a character's voice than to observe the letters they write. If you're struggling to truly know them, or how they interact with others, have them write a letter.

Cowriting a Novella as a Mother-Daughter Team

Cowriting a story is a beautiful sort of alchemy – taking the best instincts of two creative minds and sifting out the less helpful elements to create something uniquely wonderful.

It's a process not entirely unlike writing a story by yourself. You still have to keep the hallmarks of a good story in mind, crafting enjoyable characters, plot twists and turns, and settings. But embarking on this path with another writer brings its own set of challenges and joys.

For the past while, I've been cowriting a contemporary novella with my mum, Susan. Now that we're a good way into the rough draft, we thought we'd open the virtual door to our writing studio and give you a glimpse into the cowriting process!

One thing that's been interesting from the start about our cowriting journey is what we both brought to the table. Mum has a captivating sense of whimsy and an eye for sensory details that breathe life into otherwise bland settings. I have a knack for escalating tension and more experience generally with writing longform fiction.

Neither of us were certain how this journey would unfold, only that we were excited to find out!

My Writing Toolkit: The First Adventure

Welcome to My Writing Toolkit, where I share an example of my efforts to strengthen and galvanize my writing, including real samples of my own rough drafts – both before and after!

These adventures, for the foreseeable future, are largely intended to improve the quality of my prose rather than focus on big-picture, structural issues. But why do this on a rough draft, when some of this may change or vanish altogether in future drafts? Why not just wait until later?

Three reasons!

Ready for Writing Inspiration? Try Reviewing Your Own Novel!

There's no denying that some days, writing feels like an endless slog.

Plots that were humming along tangle as mercilessly as a pair of earbuds in your purse.

Characters set sail for parts unknown, determined not to reveal their secrets.

Every sentence starts to sound the same.

While there's no substitute for hard work or a nurturing rest, sometimes we just need some good ol' fashioned imagination to refresh our creative spirit!

And so today you're going to review your own story, with all the love and joy it would receive from the world's biggest fan of your books. This is a delightful exercise to hold onto and revisit whenever you're feeling creatively dispirited, to remind yourself of the potential and what's special in your work, whether you reread a review you've written before or write a new one each time.

How to Rewrite a Novel: 6 Starter Steps

In the process of writing a novel, there's a lot of excitement (and dread) around getting to the editing stage, but not every writer realizes there's potentially another stage along the way: rewriting.

While not every novel needs a full rewrite, many do, especially earlier on in a writer's career or when they're venturing down a new creative path.

So what exactly does this process involve, and how do you know whether to embark on rewriting a story?

What to Do After NaNoWriMo: 9 Steps to Take

Another year, another NaNoWriMo! If you're one of the hundred thousand-plus writers who participate, you’re likely familiar with the duelling qualities of chaos and accomplishment that accompany you through the month ... and equally familiar with the post-NaNoWriMo slump.

You may feel exhausted, out of touch with how it feels not to be galloping towards a daily word goal with a global community cheering you on.

What's a writer to do?

How to Have an Amazing NaNoWriMo

With NaNoWriMo underway, and perhaps the early excitement and momentum beginning to fade, now is the perfect time to ponder how to approach such a massive writing challenge.

“I know how to do that, silly muffin,” you might say. “Sit your butt down every day for 30 days in a row and write exactly 1,666.6 words per day, even as your life crumbles around you and the story you’re writing goes in five billion different directions and you never want to see it again once you’re finished. Voila! NaNoWriMo!”

While you're absolutely welcome to approach it this way, I think there might just be a better path, don't you?

How to Overcome Writer's Block in a Unique New Way

Have you found yourself dreading your writing time of late? Maybe sitting down diligently but watching the clock and feeling secretly relieved when it's over? Lying awake at night, doubting your abilities as a writer and wondering if this is a sign you should just give up on your creative dreams?

Not so fast, creative soul. Before you take one step further in that direction, I need to tell you a story.

How to Create a Workspace Inspired by Beatrix Potter

Never let it be said that lack of a beautiful home office begets writers block, but let's be honest: it's delightful when the space we work in, be it portable or stationary, sparks the creative fire, isn't it? And while there are some gorgeous home decor makeovers out there, sometimes all you need is a bit of innovation, encouraged by creations or creators you love.

Today we're bringing nature to the forefront for a workspace inspired by Beatrix Potter.

How to Organize a Story In Microsoft Word with Styles and a Table of Contents: A Step-by-Step Tutorial for Writers

How well do you know the program you use to write?

Microsoft Word has been my go-to for nearly two decades, and my love grew tenfold when I learned how to use Styles and create a table of contents.

Knowing how to use these tools allows you to do things like:

• use whichever font you love best for drafting a story, then change it before sending it to your agent or a beta reader
• rearrange entire chapters or scenes
• organize reams of story research

When you're ready to follow this quick tutorial, you'll emerge on the other side with a document that's set up to hold whatever you can throw at it, one that can be traversed in a flash, and you can apply it in areas other than writing, as well! You'll be creating a document from scratch here, but once you understand each of the steps, you can apply the same principles to any documents already on the go for your stories.

This tutorial assumes a basic knowledge level of how to use Microsoft Word. You should know how to create a new document, the difference between "Save" and "Save As", and be able to find your way to the various tabs and their associated groups (e.g. the Font and Paragraph groups can be found in the Home tab).

Nearly everything we do in this tutorial can be found in the Home tab.

I'm currently using the latest version of Microsoft Word through Microsoft 365, but this tutorial doesn't dive into any advanced features, so the steps should be nearly identical or at least similar for many older versions of Microsoft Word, as well.

With all that being said, let's style some text and table some contents! 😉

5 Ways to Improve a High Stakes Character Arc

Writing a character arc with a high stakes goal is not for the faint of heart. Pushing characters to act in ways that are hopefully never a part of our own lives or nature takes a steadfast soul, an appetite for excitement and drama, or both.

This is especially the case in genre fiction, where we have characters facing extraterrestrial threats, cutthroat fights for a throne, and lives hanging in the balance as timers count down.

Be they protagonist or antagonist, hero or antihero, giving a character a high stakes goal and throwing a few obstacles in their way isn't enough for a memorable story. Instead, be strategic, intensify the character arc, and a good story will be elevated to greater heights.

Let's explore these strategies as illustrated by the actions of Margaret Beaufort, grandmother to Henry VIII and great-grandmother to Elizabeth I, as fictionalized in The White Queen TV series (based on several of Philippa Gregory's novels).

Before we continue, be warned this post contains significant spoilers for The White Queen and the Season 1 finale of The Spanish Princess, as well as a mild spoiler from Episode 5 of The White Princess.

A Peek Into How I Organized My Work-in-Progress

The last time I spoke about decluttering and organizing, I shared what inspired the process and said "your decluttering success story can be a story of coming home. Coming home to yourself, to your creativity, and to what makes you happiest."

What I haven't shared until now is exactly how I did it; how I transformed a mess of old notes and drafts, scattered this way and that, into an inspiring, organized system that sparks creativity.

5 Creative Truths I Needed to Discover: A Decluttering Story

In January of 2020, I started decluttering. Again.

This is something I've done since I was little. My copy of Organizing from the Inside Out for Teens (co-written by Julie Morgenstern and her daughter, Jessi Morgenstern-Colón) is one of the most ruffled and well-loved books on my shelf. I especially love her idea that it's not about following a "one size fits all" system but rather if your possessions are organized in a way that makes sense to you and supports how you live your life.

More recently, I heard about the KonMari Method and started incorporating some of her suggestions into my days, too, such as thanking the objects I pass on or recycle, and looking at things from the perspective of whether they spark joy.

With the organizing and decluttering process being a welcome part of my life rather than a despised one, I actually thought my possessions, digital and physical, were in decent shape, until a milestone birthday on the horizon got my wheels turning and an unlikely trio of movies changed my life.

Worldbuilding Questions and Ideas for Six Planet Types

Worldbuilding is a massive undertaking.

You're responsible for figuring out who and what exists, how days are spent (and how long is a day, anyway?), and what these beings believe about everything from religion to politics to pineapple on pizza to medicine and everything else under the sun(s).

Now imagine doing that for an entire planet.

Yeah. My head just exploded, too.

Looking at some of my favourite fictional universes, and a few others along the way, it feels like one of the best ways to keep things more manageable (and less "the Big Bang is throbbing inside my head") is to break things down. One step at a time.

The Importance of First Lines for Storytellers

Say the average length of a novel runs around 80,000 words. Contained in those 80,000 words are likely thousands of sentences. How important could one line out of thousands possibly be?

When it comes to first lines, I think you'll find they're nearly as important as successfully pitching the One Ring into the fiery depths of Mount Doom (or, to be a little less dramatic, as important as having matching seam allowances when piecing a quilt or wearing a pair of jeans that don't squash the life out of you during a long car journey), but let's explore that theory, shall we?

How to Use 2, 5, 10, or 30 Minutes as a Writer

Do you ever feel like there’s not enough time in the day to do everything you want to do as a writer and, when you do have time, you’re not sure what to do with it?

Say no more. Today we’re going over tasks you can do in as little as two minutes out of your day, right on up to a luxurious thirty minutes.

Midpoint Reflections on Find the Write Spark

Hey there, creative soul! As we’re into the second half of July, I think it’s about time to check in about Find the Write Spark 2019, don’t you?

If you haven’t heard of this before, there’s still time to join in or do your own version of the challenge! Read this blog post to find out what all the excitement is about.

As a quick recap, Find the Write Spark is a monthly challenge where we take passages written by some of our favourite authors; transcribe them word-by-word onto a fresh sheet of paper or electronic document, paying attention all the while to the effect created by the choice of words, sentence structure, and so on; and then rewrite the passages in a whole new way.

How to Prepare for a Year of Writing

As fun as it is to improvise one's way through life, I can't deny that I love a good planning session, and planning helps this flighty Gemini pursue her passions diligently.

Sometimes that's a very structured process, with oodles of lists and spreadsheets and calendars. *swoons happily*

Other times, it's a process more like what I'm sharing today, clarifying and strengthening the foundations of a writing life to support something as ambitious (and rewarding) as a year of writing. We'll focus on some of the biggest areas that require love and care to best support your writing process.