Rae Poynter's Blog

Finding my inner creative child

A few weeks ago I walked out of our local art supplies shop with a set of acrylic paints and a new blending brush. I’m not a painter, and I spent way too long staring at the rainbow of paint choices, wondering what I should choose. Eventually I picked out a set of colors and brought them home to my newfound painting studio–and by ‘painting studio’ I mean a spare corner of floor space on my porch. 

I had no idea what I was doing as I spread out an old sheet across the floor, lit some candles i...

Stop struggling to write alone

Writing is, for the most part, a solitary activity. When it comes to writing a book, there’s no substitute for time spent at the keyboard putting the words to the page. 

That being said, writing a book is a monumental undertaking. From figuring out your plot to perfecting your prose, writing a good novel takes countless hours and heaps of emotional energy. 

And sometimes, all that work gets to be…a lot. 

For the first several years of my writing life, I struggled to get through the midd...

How to develop your character’s voice

A few years ago, I went to a conference all about the writing and publishing world. There, an editor from a big publisher gave a talk about how editors are looking for “voicey” novels. 

But what exactly is voice? And how can you develop a unique voice for your character?

Part 1: Defining voice

Your character’s voice isn’t just found in the dialogue. It’s the tone that gives your novel color, or the personality of your story. This personality flows from the unique perspective of your cha...

8 Keys to Writing Spectacular Stories

Writing a novel is hard. From character development to worldbuilding to trying to keep all of your subplots straight, there is a lot that goes into writing a novel, especially for beginners. When I was first starting out as a writer, I made a lot of mistakes, and I struggled for years to even finish a story, let alone revise and edit one. 

Now, as someone who works with emerging writers, I’ve noticed several common challenges that most new writers struggle with. While you can find pages and p...

Why I’m publishing the Sitka Saga in Web3

When I started writing my fantasy novel series, the Sitka Saga, I knew it was something I wanted to share with the world one day, but I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to do that.

At first, I was dead-set on going the traditional publishing route. This was, after all, how “real” authors sent their books into the world. Then I learned the troubling news that even most traditionally published books sell fewer than 5,000 copies.

When considering how much effort goes into querying, going o...

The world needs your magic: Why I’m writing the Sitka Saga

The Beginnings

Books aren’t always crafted in a linear fashion. In fact, my own personal experience shows that this is rarely the case for me. This year I am planning to launch the first part of my fantasy trilogy, the Sitka Saga, a story that has evolved and changed through the ten years I’ve spent writing it. So I thought I’d share a bit about how this story came to be, and why I’m pouring so much of my time and energy into sharing it with the world.

I live in northern Minnesota, a land ...

The world needs your magic: How I came up with the Sitka Saga

The Beginnings

Books aren’t always crafted in a linear fashion. In fact, my own personal experience shows that this is rarely the case for me. This year I am planning to launch the first part of my fantasy trilogy, the Sitka Saga, a story that has evolved and changed through the ten years I’ve spent writing it. So I thought I’d share a bit about how this story came to be, and why I’m pouring so much of my time and energy into sharing it with the world.

I live in northern Minnesota, a land ...

Why Content Creators Need Web3

For the past year or so, the words NFT and Web3 have been getting thrown with increasing frequency, from headlines about art selling for thousands of dollars to a blossoming interest in AI and the metaverse. 

I’m a freelance journalist and creative writer who doesn’t come from the tech world. As such, I was initially skeptical of the idea of Web3. But the more research I’ve done into it, the more I’ve realized that NFTs aren’t just overpriced JPEGs. 

No, NFTs have the ability to disrupt ev...

Forget plot-driven vs. character-driven. Good stories are both.

How do you know that you have the right protagonist for your story?

If you’ve spent any amount of time in the writing world, you’ve certainly ran into the concept of plot-driven vs. character-driven stories. To simplify, plot-driven stories are stories where (you guessed it) exciting plots drive the story, whereas character development takes the center stage in character-driven stories. 

In short, plot-driven stories focus on external conflict, while character-driven stories focus on overc...

The internet is changing again. Here’s why I’m publishing my book as a serial novel.

Part one in my series on the future of publishing. 

When the internet arrived and self-publishing took the writing world by storm, it brought the hopeful promise of a new era. No longer would writers be beholden to major companies; rather, the power would be in our own hands, sharing the writing on our own terms, and thousands more people would be able to make it as full-time authors.

Fast forward to today, and while self-publishing certainly has ushered in a new era for writers, we also c...