Category Archives: Writing
Lyle’s Three Laws of Magic
Written on July 24, 2012 at 09:34, by Anne
Yesterday I came across an article about creating a magic system for your novel, and on impulse tweeted to say that I disliked the phrase “magic system” when applied to written fiction. This sparked a lively debate, and afterwards I thought it would be fun to codify my conclusions in a set of rules. OK, Continue Reading »
Revising your novel in 10 easy steps
Written on July 3, 2012 at 10:30, by Anne
Writing a novel is hard work, but for many aspiring authors the much harder part is revising that first draft into something fit to send out into the wide world. Since I’ve just finished revising The Merchant of Dreams, I thought it might be useful to document how I went about it. [Note: the process Continue Reading »
Tracking word count with Scrivener
Written on February 28, 2012 at 09:19, by Anne
It’s been a while since I did a techie post, but this is a topic that came up on Twitter the other day in conversation with my fellow Angry Robot author Matt Forbeck. We’re both using the word-count tracking features of Scrivener but in slightly different ways, so here for Matt’s edification (and anyone else’s!) Continue Reading »
Action? Figures!
Written on November 29, 2011 at 18:54, by Anne
One of my favourite bits of writing fantasy is the action scenes. I rarely bother to plan them in advance – one sword-fighting scene in The Alchemist of Souls was described as “Big fight!” in my outline – as I find they’re more fun, and more fluid, if I just make things up as I Continue Reading »
Gestating Elephants
Written on July 12, 2011 at 14:38, by Anne
I don’t usually blog about writing because, yanno, I’m trying to avoid creating Yet Another Writer’s Blog. But a number of things have happened this week that got me thinking, and I felt I had to share them. On the personal side, I’m struggling with the plot of The Merchant of Dreams, Book Two in Continue Reading »
Writing a novel on the iPad
Written on July 6, 2011 at 18:05, by Anne
When the iPad first came out, I dismissed it as a “toy” because it was clearly designed for the consumption of media, rather than creation. But more and more productivity apps were released, until I was forced to admit that it might actually be useful as well as pretty! Add in a battery life that Continue Reading »
