When I wrote my first historical novel, I made all the mistakes.
Not just those pertaining to good writing in general—and I made those big time—but also those specific to historical fiction in particular.
Category Archives: Writing
Reasons to Keep a Journal
I first started journaling years ago because Julia Cameron told me to.
Not literally; I’ve never met or communicated with the renowned author and screenwriter personally.
However in her bestselling creative self-help book/program The Artist’s Way, which I completed in 2011, she advocates a practice of “morning pages”—three handwritten, stream-of-consciousness pages of journaling first thing every morning.
Using Evaluation Theory to Help You Set Your New Year’s Resolutions
“New year, new you”, so the popular saying goes.
However negatively this mantra tends to be received, especially online, I am here for it because for me, I have a pretty good track record of making it work.
I Should NOT Be Writing: My Years-Long List of Neglected Tasks
My dad used to have an expression about women and their relationships with men.
“The only thing worse than having no man is having a useless one.”
Learning by Doing (Over): Even More Thoughts on Having My Novel Critiqued
Apparently, I’m both a better and worse writer than I always thought.
It’s been pretty much a full year since I started my critique group, and the time I’ve spend working with my CPs has been full of revelations about myself as a writer.
Blogging Isn’t Dead (But Someday I Will Be)
Maybe it’s morbid to talk about your inevitable death on your birthday.
Or maybe one’s birthday is an ideal time to reflect upon the natural ending of things, as well as the things you want to accomplish before your own end time, and more importantly, the barriers, both real and imaginary, that stand in your way.
My Year-End 2018 Goals Reassessment (New Year’s Resolution Redux #3)
I’ve got one more kick at the can.
I’m a long-standing lover of New Year’s resolutions, and this year, aside from just setting some—which is the easy part—I decided to perform regular progress assessments in order to course correct as needed to help boost my likelihood of achieving success.
How Do You Write a Book?
I’m always taken aback when a non-writer is impressed by the act of writing a novel.
In last week’s post, I wrote about my passion for writing and how, in reality, my devotion to it presents as rather obsessive and possibly a little pathetic.
On Pursuing Your Passion
This past August, my family sold the house that I grew up in.
My dad had been living there, but passed away almost two years ago (it will be exactly two years at the start of December).
On Validation During the Writing Process (and why it’s okay for writers to want that too)
I’ve written before on the topic of writers and validation.
That previous post was related to which form of publishing one might chose to pursue (self-publishing vs. traditional), and what that choice may or may not say about one’s need for acknowledgement by writing industry professionals, which in turn may or may not relate to the strength of one’s self esteem.
Janna G. Noelle 