Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 33

Let's talk about eating

Art by Manik n' Ratan

Food is what I'm obsessed with. Repelled by. Drawn to. Annoyed at. Food was scarce when I was little, and plentiful when I was a teenager and lived in Germany, and scarce again when I returned to Russia and ran away from home and lived on my own, and then crazy, unbelievably abundant when I moved to US. Food was my weapon at times to control those who hurt me by not eating, and it was a source of comfort and fear when it was there, fear that someone would take it befo...

Breaking your manuscript into chapters

Art by Matthieu Bourel

"Hi Ksenia,

I love everything about the blog and your work, kudos.I am writing my first book (non fiction), and am lost as to how to break the whole thing into chapters.

Mayowa"

Hi Mayowa,

Thank you, darling. Great question. I used to break up my manuscript into chapters as I wrote it every day. In the morning I would start a new chapter, and by the end of the writing day I'd try to finish it. The good part of it was, I completed a chapter a day. The bad part of it was,...

10 fears of self-publishing

Illustration by Paride Bertolin

Maybe that's why so many writers quit after having tested the self-publishing waters. Maybe that's why some choose traditional publishing over independent, provided they have a way in. Maybe that's why some never even dare to go all the way and shove their manuscripts in the drawers and forget about them. Because going out there on your own is fucking scary. And it's not some hypothetical scary. It's scary as in, you might need to sell your car and your hous...

You don't need any special skills to start writing

Art by Mladen Penev

"Hello, Ksenia.

I have followed your blog and writing for a while now and you've given me lots of advice and insight into my own. I would like to embark on a writing career, but I have been constantly beset by the same niggling worry: how I didn't really read much as a child.I pretty much only started "properly" reading in my twenties and, it may come completely from a place of insecurity and doubt, but I was wondering if it would come to affect my writing, i.e. if I wil...

Fuck legalese. JUST WRITE.

Illustration by Noma Bar

"Hi Ksenia.First, my congratulations to you—I really commend the work you do as a fiction writer and blogger. I've come to read your site regularly and really enjoy your work.I thought I'd reach out because I know you're great at giving inspiring advice to writers and I certainly could use some at the moment. I've hit a bit of a wall when it comes to both inspiration and how best to move forward [...] I've been a full-time writer and editor for about 10 years [...]...

It's all witchery

Art by Danielsan Tardamucho

"Hey, mom. Thank you for calling me to wish me Happy Birthday."

"Ksenechka! Listen to this. I found these old photographs with everyone. Everyone is there, at a big table."

"Who?"

"Great grandma's relatives. The sisters, and the aunts, and the uncles. When grandma is lucid, she points out to me who is who."

"How is she doing?"

"She is stable, not very good, but stable. There are moments...like tonight, I thought she would die. She stopped talking, and she only looks...

Don't explain, stupid. Your reader is not an idiot.

Art by Charles M. Schultz

This is as much for you as it is for me. Because I know you do it. I've seen it. And I have to thank Royce for catching me doing this. I was blind to it. To the point of him having to repeat it to me several times until I got it.

I tend to do this in the beginning of the chapters. In the opening sentence. I've written a post about it a long time ago, about summarizing your whole book in your opening sentence (and paragraph, sort of) as I've seen Stephen King do. I'...

Creating atmosphere: mention all 5 senses

Art by Andreas Lie Bergen

Or 6, if your character is a psychic. Or 7. Or whatever the number. As long as you mention at least a couple!

What's about to follow is a rant brought on by all this editing I'm doing right now, and by reading writing samples some friends send me, and by reading writing submissions to @ellowrites. Sure, there are other, BIGGER,more important parts to every story, like the characters and the plot and the dialogue, but without a sense of atmosphere you're fucked. Som...

Fuck. Today I'm 40.

I think I'm 4, though. I feel more 4 now than I felt when I was 4. I think back then I was really 40, and now I'm really 4. Time is going backwards and inside out, and I like it.

So if I live, say, till 80, I have lived already half. But if I live till 90, I'm not quite there yet, and if I live till I'm 70, or 60, or 50, well, that would really suck. That means I have to bloody write faster!

But really...I don't know why I'm writing this and why you're reading this, if not for the reason of it...

When writing isn't enough

Illustration by Maria Ines Gul

Sometimes I gaze into the mirror, at the top of my head, and think, "It's all in there. What's stopping me from getting to it?" My mind is very clever, apparently, as is the mind of every child who went through trauma. It gets forgotten, repressed, skewed, blurred, dismissed, diminished, swept under the rug and kept there until the time comes when you can pull it out, old and dirty and ugly, and look it in the face. That time might come, it might not. And you...