Category Writing

Escapism and settings

I’ve been reading (well, listening to) Ready Player One this week, and it’s made me think about settings. Okay—lots of things make me think about settings, but the book is what inspired the blog post. Ready Player One takes place in our…

Seasons, moods, places

In November of 2014, I moved further north than I’d ever lived before—to Dundee, on the east coast (ish) of Scotland. There were a lot of warnings about the weather, and how oppressive it could be in winter, but my husband…

Place names, Dragon Age, and originality

Coming up with fantasy place names that haven’t been used extensively elsewhere is an ongoing challenge in my writing life. I don’t want to name my glittering empire after a quiet village in England, after all, but I don’t want to use so many…

It gets… easier?

NaNo 2015 is officially under my belt! Despite a visit from my globe-trotting parents, I made it to 50k words this year and—most amazingly—continued to enjoy the story as I wrote it. Having a more fleshed-out plan was an absolute lifesaver,…

It’s the most~ wonderful time~ of the year!

Christmas? No! Thanksgiving? Not even close! (Or, well, not quite.) The most wonderful time of the year, in my totally-not-universal opinion, is November–National Novel Writing Month–and the lead-up to it. I did NaNoWriMo for the first time as a fresh-faced…