Florence Witkop's Blog, page 31
December 21, 2018
Happy Solstice
Happy solstice! Today is officially the first day of winter.
December 20, 2018
Make time to write
When you fly on an airplane with children, the flight attendants are always careful to say that in the event the oxygen masks should fall, you must put on your own mask before helping the children. It might sound selfish at first, but think about it for just a second and it’s easy to see …
December 17, 2018
How do you know when you have enough research to write a book?
Got an interesting question on Quora that reminded me of conversations regarding research that I’ve had with other writers. A couple of them write historical romances and love doing research. They do a whole lot more research than I do. And it should be mentioned that partly why I love science fiction is that I …
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December 12, 2018
Which pays better, short stories or novels?
I recently answered a question on Quora. I chuckled as I wrote the answer because I could imagine the would-be professional writer seriously looking into the business side of writing for a living because I was in that same place a long time ago. I almost cried when magazines went bankrupt and my nice, comfortable …
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November 25, 2018
Reasons to love winter
First, there’s the snow. It’s white. It’s also blue — and pink — and purple — and more, and it’s beautiful. (Okay, it’s lovely while it’s clean and pristine. By spring, not so much.) Second is the quiet. I don’t know why winter is quiet. Maybe because people stay inside more. Maybe snow is a …
November 21, 2018
Why novels have a set number of words.
Word counts became necessary so publishers could plan how to print their books ahead of time; so their print runs could be set up for a certain number of pages and that meant a certain number of words to fill up those pages. Now that online books are popular, word counts aren’t as important and …
November 18, 2018
Nice, normal people in books
Nice, normal, people are every bit as interesting as people with huge problems. Their lives are every bit as interesting as the lives of people who are unhappy, dysfunctional and ridden by guilt or angst. So that’s what I’ve been writing lately. Romances of normal, happy people who aren’t looking for love but find it …
November 16, 2018
At what point in the writing process is it a good idea to allow someone to give feedback on my novel?
Depends on when in the writing process you begin to feel you need feedback. Most of the time, writes want feedback after they’ve completed their first draft and before they start ‘tweaking’ their story. That way, they think, any big flaws will be caught by their readers before they put too much effort into the …
November 13, 2018
Can I write the ending of my novel before writing the whole novel?
You can write your novel in any order you wish as long as it works for you. I know many authors who plot out their story then, when they sit down at the computer, decide which scene they wish to write that day. It works for them. Not for me. I plow ahead one scene …
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November 8, 2018
What are the advantages of using a fictional setting for the novel I’m writing?
There are lots of advantages! Most of all is the fact that not a single reader can come back at you and tell you what you did wrong about your setting. Another advantage is that you can shape the setting to fit the story. You can make the setting become a valuable part of the …
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