The Writer's Workout

Distance before revision I wrote the first draft of my first novel just out of high school, right on the cusp of 19. I was young, inspired, and profoundly enamored with writing. It all started out with just a feeling: the grief that comes with unrequited love. From this one driving emotion flourished several characters whose voices and personalities wove their way into the pages of my story.  At the time, I felt prepared. I had read my genre voraciously. I had planned the tim

The advice on writing routines is endless and contradictory. Many aspiring novelists will be familiar with the idea that you must  write every single day, preferably at the same time of day, and hit the same word count. Spend some time digging for it and you will surely find the opposite advice too—don’t force yourself to write when you don’t feel like it because if you don’t like doing it, you won’t do it at all. Contradictory advice becomes frustrating when you feel like yo

You can’t do it alone. The writing process, that is. You can write an entire novel, or short story, or screenplay, or whatever completely by yourself, and that’s typically the norm, but you also need some sort of outside help to get you through a hurdle in your writing process. Take this blog post for example: you’re reading it because you’re hoping to find a nugget of useful info that will propel you forward in some way in your writing. Expectations are high: I’m supposed to

Burnout is a familiar feeling in any creative profession, especially as a writer. Crafting elaborate worlds or working to develop their characters' psyches fully can take up a lot of brain space. All the everyday stress of life, personal relationships, jobs, and school can also add to that mental load.  Life’s chaos can affect any number of people. I want to be clear: burnout is nothing to be ashamed of . There are ways to deal with it, and you may even use it to your advanta

Imagine yourself sitting at your computer late one evening, curled up in a blanket, soft ambient music playing alongside a burning candle and with nothing but uninterrupted time to write.  The conditions are perfect. The words should flow from your hands to your manuscript easily. But there’s one problem: you’re hit with an intense writer’s block that is so debilitating, you end up doom scrolling for hours on the internet instead.  And your manuscript remains unchanged. And i

Let’s face it: writing fiction, also known as filling a blank page with a wondrous, moving story, is hard.  It’s building an entire world from scratch, sometimes several worlds. Far too many potential writers give up before they begin just because of how daunting it can be… but it doesn’t have to be that way. The idea of writing is full of obstacles like comparison to other writers, work and family obligations, a perceived lack of time, and, of course, self-doubt. But if you

In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild , Link wakes up entombed and suffering from amnesia. At the heart of his lost memories is Zelda, but—what is his connection to her? Why is that name… familiar? As the game unfolds, you are prompted to fight, explore, and, most pertinently: recall the past through Zelda's scattered memories. The game's open design allows you to experience them in any order, emulating Link's recollection without dissolving the story. And there lies the