M. Kirin's Blog, page 233

I’ve been doing lots of editing recently, so I thought I’d illustrate the little ways you can...

I’ve been doing lots of editing recently, so I thought I’d illustrate the little ways you can improve the flow of your writing! 🌻

How to Write a Novel in 3 Easy Steps:1 - Write as little as you can every day.2 - Keep going.3 -...

How to Write a Novel in 3 Easy Steps:

1 - Write as little as you can every day.
2 - Keep going.
3 - That’s it. There’s no punchline. Steps 1-2 are literally all you need to write a novel.

PS: Yes, it’s true. “Writing as little as you can” is in fact superior to “writing as much as you can.” You know why? Because of a little something called consistency.

Writing one page a day consistently is a million times better than writing thirty pages one day, twenty pages the day after that, burning out the day...

I’m feeling good for the first time in a few days so I’m gonna just go ahead and reveal...

I’m feeling good for the first time in a few days so I’m gonna just go ahead and reveal one of the mysteries of the universe to you:

How do you make your writing flow better?

It’s simple! Stop making your sentences juggle. 🤹‍♀️

In a novel, just like in a speech or a conversation, each sentence is a thought. Writing has good flow when it feels like the thoughts are chained together naturally. And, by extension, writing feels clunky when there’s too much going on in each sentence.

Example time!

“The su...

Today’s editing session has been a great reminder of something I learned after writing/editing...

Today’s editing session has been a great reminder of something I learned after writing/editing so many books:

The first third of a novel is both the hardest to write and the hardest to edit.

It’s so crazy to think that it’s this first third of the process where most people get stuck, lose faith, and either start chasing another plot-bunny or give up altogether.

If only they got past that bump.

I’m not saying that writing a book gets *easy* after the 30% mark. That’s a needless reduction. Writing/edi...

In editing this book I’ve had to change a character’s name three times. The first name never felt...

In editing this book I’ve had to change a character’s name three times. The first name never felt right, the second was too close to another character’s. I’m hoping the 3rd sticks 😅

This is why you shouldn’t stress out about character names. It’s one of the easiest things to change later! 🌻💚

I’ve been doing lots of editing, so here’s my…TOP 10 MOST SATISFYING THINGS ABOUT...

I’ve been doing lots of editing, so here’s my…

TOP 10 MOST SATISFYING THINGS ABOUT EDITING YOUR NOVEL

10. Taking a passage that was already pretty good and then making it even better.

9. Looking at a passage, saying “yeah I don’t need any of this” and slamming the delete key

8. Adding just the right amount of foreshadowing during that seemingly innocent scene 😈

7. Taking [that one line] from earlier in the book and putting it in the final chapter.

6. Spotting a plot-hole and fixing it!

5. Realizing tha...

If your goal is to get better at something (be it drawing, or writing), self-deprecating is just...

If your goal is to get better at something (be it drawing, or writing), self-deprecating is just about the most UNPRODUCTIVE thing you can do.

Most people do this under the guise of “being critical” of their work, but do you even know what being critical actually means?

“Being critical” of your art means to be able to point out (a) what works and (b) what doesn’t.

Let me repeat that:

What works *AND* what doesn’t.

If all you ever do is point out what sucks about your art, then you’re just beating you...

Remember how the other day I talked about reading through a chapter of my novel and seeing that it...

Remember how the other day I talked about reading through a chapter of my novel and seeing that it wasn’t working? 😯

Well, I found the problem and fixed it!

Let me show you how I did it in two easy steps~ 🤓✨

STEP #1

Read through each paragraph in the trouble section. As you read, answer the following two questions:

a. What is the point of this paragraph? What does it achieve? What does it add to the story?

b. How does it lead into the next paragraph?

Your notes from #1 is a summary of the *F...

I wrote a bit in this book that I was confident of at the time, but in reading through it now that...

I wrote a bit in this book that I was confident of at the time, but in reading through it now that I’m editing, I realize I kind of dropped the ball. 😨

But, that’s the wonderful thing about editing! Now I get to re-analyze this chapter and really make it ✨SHINE✨

So, here’s your writing/editing insight for the day:

You are going to make mistakes during the first draft, and that’s okay! You’re not doing anything wrong, everything is—as a matter of fact—working as intended. Keep going, keep writing, a...

No work for me today, it’s a holiday~ 🥳🎂

No work for me today, it’s a holiday~ 🥳🎂