A.M. Offenwanger's Blog, page 5

#FridayFragment, 10.11.2023

A fly buzzed against the window as slowly, outside, the rain dripped off the eaves.

“It’s kind of cozy,” he said, pulling the blanket closer around his shoulders.

“I know,” his friend replied. “I don’t know if I can stand it much longer.”

#WordlessWednesday: Early Morning NaNoWriMo Write-in

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK? Part 6: Living the Writer’s Life

[Cue sonorous voiceover] Previously on “So You Want to Write a Book?”: Part 1, How I got started; Part 2, Other Ways of Writing a Book; Part 3, WRITE THAT THING; Part 4, What next?; Part 5, Getting it out there. How I wrote my first book by just starting to write; how to plan a book step by step; how to actually write that book; how to edit it once it’s finished, and how to self-publish it.

Part 6: What Else? – Living the Writer’s Life

So perhaps, this whole thing of writing a whole, b...

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK? Part 5: How to Self-Publish

[Cue sonorous voiceover] Previously on “So You Want to Write a Book?”: Part 1, How I got started; Part 2, Other Ways of Writing a Book; Part 3, WRITE THAT THING; Part 4: What next? How I wrote my first book by just starting to write; how to plan a book step by step; how to actually write that book; and how to edit it once it’s finished.

Part 5: Getting it out there – Self-publishing

So you finished your book (Congratulations once again!) and you’ve edited it to the best of your abiliti...

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK? Part 4: Editing Your Book

[Cue sonorous voiceover] Previously on “So You Want to Write a Book?”: Part 1, How I got started; Part 2, Other Ways of Writing a Book; Part 3, WRITE THAT THING. How I wrote my first book by just starting to write; how to plan a book step by step; and how to actually write that book.

Part 4: What next? – Editing the Book

So you’ve gone and finished that book you’ve always been dreaming of. Wow! Hurrah! Congratulations! That is so awesome!

I mean all of what I just said. Having writt...

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK? Part 3: How to Write the Thing

[Cue sonorous voiceover] Previously on “So You Want to Write a Book?”: Part 1, How I got started; and Part 2, Other Ways of Writing a Book: How to write a book by just sitting down and writing it, or, conversely, how to plan, plot, and plunge deeply into the story before you begin writing, a five (or more) step process. Spoiler alert: Both methods work.

Part 3: WRITE THE THING

If you’ve skipped ahead to this part because you couldn’t wait to find out how to actually write that book, he...

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK? Part 2: How to Plan a Book

[Cue sonorous voiceover] Previously on “So You Want to Write a Book?”: Part 1, How I got started. Detailing in great, umm, detail, how a particular writer went from “I’m not ever going to be ‘a novelist’!” to being, well, just that. And how said writer wrote their first novel by sitting down and starting to type on a chilly November day in 2011.

Part 2: Other Ways of Writing a Book – How to Plan a Book

So, as I said last time, I didn’t even set out to “write a book”, because I didn’t k...

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A BOOK? Part 1: How I Got Started

Note: When I started this series I thought it would be one post, maybe two. It turned into six. So I’ll be posting one of these every day this week.

Part 1: How I Got Started

A friend and I were talking the other day about things one could do with one’s life.
“Is there anything you really want to do?” I asked her. “Something you’ve always dreamt of?”
She didn’t even pause to think.
“Write a book!” she said.
Well, you know what my reaction to that was bound to be.
“Do it!” I shot back at her....

#FridayFragment: 27.10.2023

It glittered. The corner of the basement glittered. Naila was sure of it this time. She shook her phone to turn on the flashlight and shone it into the corner. The glitter vanished. She turned the light off, and there it was again, glittering like a million tiny, faint stars gathered in the corner of her basement behind the canning shelves.

Open Mic

I almost didn’t go to that Writers’ Social. I was tired, and it was quite a long drive into town. But I knew I’d enjoy it – hanging out with other writers is always a boost – and so I made myself go.

Should I do the Open Mic?, I wondered as I was driving down the highway through the twilight (I hate driving in twilight, it’s so confusing). I hadn’t prepared for it at all, just had a story in mind that I thought might work – it’s short enough.

And then a line popped into my head, I don’t ...