Ksenia Anske's Blog, page 48
January 13, 2015
CORNERS is now THE BADLINGS!!! Or, fit the title to the book.
Photo by Patty Maher
It started out innocently enough. I wanted to write a book that would take me on a wild romp of storiesI grew up with. "What could be wrong withthat?"I thought. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing could go wrong." Somewhere in the back of my mind a little inimical worm sourly whispered words of caution. I ignored him. Smart, very smart. Two drafts into the book by the curious name of CORNERS (the plot revolved around 4 kids turning corners of pages and dropping in and out of...
January 11, 2015
Are you growing fast enough as a writer?
I have been plagued by this question every day for a month now. This obstinate nasal voice droning in my ear, twanging with awful regularity,"Are you getting better? Are you improving? Are you? Are you? ARE YOU??" It's enough to drive one nuts, and I wonder if those who have been at this for a decade (compared to my meager 2+ years) can enlighten me on the stages of writer's development. If there is such a thing. I'm sure something like this exists. I can roughly map...
January 8, 2015
To create you must protect yourself at all costs
Yesterday morning I have broken my new promise to myself. That promise wasnot to check anything in the morning, no email, no social media, nothing, just wake up and write. Why did I break it? Well, the reason wasinnocent enough.I thought, Hey,I have written a blog post, so I'll just quicklyspreadthe love online, I'll quickly publish it so it can be sent out tomy blog subscribers at 10 AM exactly asit's supposed to, I'll quicklytweet about it, very quickly, I won't ev...
January 7, 2015
Why editors are important
Like you have no idea why. But Iwill repeat it, nonetheless. Again, and again, and again. (You are welcome to beat me up later.)If you're looking into self-publishing, you mustMUSTMUST have an editor, even if it's just a friend who is good at catching things and is willing to lend you an extrapair of eyes. Scooped out, on ice, in a glass container. No, really.Editors catch things you would never catch in a million years because you're blind to them. I have had the...
January 3, 2015
Plot is your character's want
Supposedly a writer who has written several novels knows what a plot is. Supposedly said writer has studied everything there is to study about writing and has formed a solid understanding of craft basics, plot being one of the most important of them. Here comes a secret. Are you ready for this?
I have written 3 novels (well, 1 of them a trilogy) and I've been cutting off my head and slamming it against the wall every single time someone asked me about plot or suggested...
January 1, 2015
Getting back to writing after a long break
A fellow writer asked: "Hey, I'm trying to get writing again...any tips?"
Yes.
JUST BLOODY START WRITING ABOUT YOUR DEEPEST PAIN. BLOODY WRITE EVERY DAY. DON'T TAKE ANY BLOODY BREAKS.(Okay, okay, chill. Some more practical tips are coming.)
I'm in the middle of a 2 week break between CORNERS drafts right now, and I'm tearing my hair out. Perhaps this is the last time I'll ever take a break like this. The irrational fear of "I forgot how to write a book!" is starting to...
December 31, 2014
Your New Year's Resolution: WRITE A BOOK
Welcome to 2015.
You just woke up. You're feeling the sodden pounding headache from consuming too much champagne the night before. You're scratching your head. What day is it? January 1st of the new fucking year. What is it that you have promised everyone willing to listen? You will lose those stubborn extra 5 pounds? You will sign up at a local volunteer organization and, with a bounding heart, will help them take down lost armadillos from the blooming pine trees i...
December 30, 2014
Happy 2015!!! 2014 in review. And what's coming. And stuff.
Happy Fucking New Year, you gentle dandelions!
I'm shamelessly stealing the idea of a year in review picture you see above from Chuck Wendig, so all complaints to him. Let me titivate myself here in front of a mirror, so I look presentable, get naked, don my tutu, and tell you about 2014, which was the 2nd year of my full-time writing career, which, miraculously, I'm able to pull off financially while giving my books away for free AND making money, which is astounding, which, I suspect, will...
December 28, 2014
My best blog posts of 2014
It's almost 2015, you hamster comrades! Do you feel it? DO YOU FEEL IT?? I have decided to give you the best of my best cookies, I mean, macaroons, I mean, blog posts, okay? Best blog posts of 2014, based on that Google Analytics thingy that one of you taught me how to use (I'm a techie idiot, obviously) so I could see the curious statistics of things. Dig in, then. Oh, oh, do I hear the chink of spoons on china? The discreet groans of anticipation?
YOU KNOW YOU WILL...
December 27, 2014
Books that made my 2014
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas and С наступающими праздниками and FUCK I HATE HOLIDAYS BECAUSE I WANT TO GET BACK TO WRITING AND READING, DAMMIT.
Anyway.
I had this idea. Actually, it was not my idea, you can blame Amanda Palmer.She started it. She wrote a blog post on books she read in 2014 and will read in 2015, and I was like, dude, I was thinking about posting something like that too! So here I go. After having thoroughly titivated myself, and,peeking in the mi...
