Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 18

Every scene block has to ask a question

Photo: Blockitecture by Areaware

Scenes are the main elements of your novel (I teach scene blocking on Patreon). A novel is nothing but a scene after a scene after a scene.

And every scene is comprised of blocks, so when you plan a scene, think of it as the series of blocks: one block is leading to another, then to another, then to another.

Each block has to ask a question, then answer it, and that answer has to lead to the next question, and the next, and the next. In other words, each scen...

Tell them all to fuck off

Illustration by Sozzij

We all have those days when "they" (whoever "they" are for you) won't let us write. The internal fraud police, friends or family, strangers...you know, those well-meaning people who somehow think they know what's better for us.

Well, tell them to FUCK OFF.

Writing takes time. And it's time spent alone. So create space for you to write, before others take it away from you.

And by the way, how is your writing coming along?

TELL ME.

THE "ALWAYS" P.S.: My Patreon patrons gets...

Make the reader dig for the "shiny object"

Image source

Every day I work on hiding things while writing, as in, hiding the "shiny objects" (my editor calls them that)—the things that are revealed at the end of each block or each scene (kind of like the stepping stones that make the readers keep turning pages). The surprises. The mini-plot turns. 

If you spell it out, it's boring.

Make the reader dig for them!

Here is how I do it.

Before I put down a single line of writing, I think, "Can I hide it somehow beneath something, and reveal i...

My blog is 6 years old! Relaunching it with daily WRITING TIPS

Illustration by Thoka Maer

Hello hello, my loves! Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've given up on blogging consistently, but posting daily WRITING TIPS on my Patreon has given me this idea...why not post them on my blog too? I love getting emails with daily blog posts by Seth Godin, and those of you who are my patrons told me you love my daily WRITING TIPS, and you even told me you want a book of them published (working on it).

So. I asked you on Patreon, and you said it's a good idea t...

6 things I learned from writing full-time for 6 years

Photo by Christina Shires

Today is 6 years since I started writing full-time. Holy shit. Has it really been that long??

Let’s see, what did I learn. 

1. I learned that I know nothing.

2. I learned that I’ll always keep learning.

3. I learned that every book is different, and what worked before might not work again.

4. I learned that staying calm to focus is more important that all the writing techniques in the world.

5. I learned that writing is a job just like any other, and I must hone my craf...

How to make time for writing

Illustration by Monica Barengo

This just hit me. I have all the time in the world, and I’m the one who is choosing how to use it.

I often hear you complain (or laugh about it, so as not to start crying) how you don’t have the time to write when I ask you why you're not writing (after you tell me you want to). And I was thinking about it for days and days and days...until it hit me today.

I was checking something on my phone. Twitter or email. And then I stopped myself. I thought, “Wait, why...

Submerging yourself in 3 story incarnations in 1 day

I have allowed myself to take a day off writing T.U.B.E. today to study, and I had an experience like no other. I can’t recommend it to you enough, to try it. I have submerged myself in a story in three of its incarnations in one day, to study the underlying structure. Have wanted to do it for months now until I realized I won’t have time for it unless I make time.

Today seemed perfect. Quiet. Sunny. With nothing on my calendar. So I thought, when will I have a quiet day like this again? I wa...

Guest Post: Real World Writing Schedules

Illustration by Robert Frog

Continuing with guest posts, please welcome our guest writer number three, Karl J. Folk! Karl has a distinctly odd sense of humor due to over-exposure to Monty Python, enjoys ignoring the rest of the world while focusing on the finer things in life through a camera lens, and pulls art from thin air in just about every sort of medium (except painting... paint brushes still baffle him). Karl has also been known to write for days on end when lighting strikes.

REAL W...

Announcement: I'm moving EVERYTHING to Patreon

My beloved Hamsters,

I’ve made a big decision to move EVERYTHING—my client and fan groups on Facebook, the tiny sales tips newsletter I started, and even this blog (I’ll be blogging less often and opening it up to guest posts, so pitch me)—to Patreon. It’ll make my life easier. (Plus, it was my New Year’s resolution to rest).

In the course of working on TUBE I’ve been able to see that I continue neglecting my needs like the adults who neglected my needs when I was a child. Only I don’t have th...

Guest post: World Domination amidst lovable villains like day job & friends & sleep

Illustration by Dinara Mirtalipova

And here comes guest post number two. Please welcome Amy L. Sauder. Amy has been called “Quirky Meta Mystery” and “Walking Fairytale.” Since gaining her English Lit degree, she has studied creative writing and dabbled in other arts she probably has no business dabbling in. Amy strongly believes that in some parallel universe her clumsy self figured out how to become a trapeze artist. Amy writes quirks, obsession, madness, and misfits.

WORLD DOMINATION AMID...