A Dreaming Exercise
If money and time were no issue, where would you go to write?
As many of you know already, every month I meet with a few fellow authors to discuss all things writing, and it’s one of my favourite evening.
We obviously have a Watsapp group, and one day, Angus asked us a question that got my brain going down a rabbit hole.
How to raise the stakes in your writing
As viewers, or readers, do we perceive any difference between risking the lives of ten, a thousand, or a billion people?
No, not really.
How can we raise the stakes of our stories when the threat of total destruction has already been unfolded?
What we can learn from “Inventing Anna,” by Shonda Rhimes
How did Shonda Rhimes glued me to a story I shouldn’t care about on paper?
This is a hard question to answer. Frustrating, even, and yet compelling, just like “Inventing Anna,” a Netflix Original Series retelling the true-ish story of Anna Delvey; a con artist who almost deceived the entire city of New York.
3 lessons from Writing the Weird, by JS Breukelaar on Litreactor
I write weird stuff.
I’ve always been aware of it, even if unconsciously, but little did I know that other people wrote weird staff too, and some of them are really good at it.
When I saw the course “Writing the Weird” taught by the outstanding JS Breukelaar on Litreactor, I didn’t know what to expect, but I had to sign up.
And, oh boy, I was up for a trip.
20 Questions to help you develop your characters (11 - 20)
The simplest, most common and yet effective way to outline a complex character is with a questionnaire. Try to Google it. No, really. I’ll wait. Done? As you might have noticed, there are millions of pages with lists of questions that vary from 6 to 300 or more; and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve indulged in a ridiculous number of them.
20 Questions to help you develop your characters (1 - 10)
The simplest, most common and yet effective way to outline a complex character is with a questionnaire. Try to Google it. No, really. I’ll wait. Done? As you might have noticed, there are millions of pages with lists of questions that vary from 6 to 300 or more; and I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve indulged in a ridiculous number of them.
How to write your first novel
During my first year of university, I decided I wanted to write a novel. So I thought about a story, opened up a word document and—BOOM—believe it or not, two years later the novel was still unwritten.
After years of writing consistently in the gaps of a busy life, I think I found a set of tricks that work very well for me, keeping my writing nearly consistent even during the most challenging times.
The 5 stages of Novel Writing
2021 started without a major project. I had time to polish a few short stories and learn more about the craft of writing, yes, but I was yearning for a new novel I could fall in love with.
You could say that, in a sense, I was grieving the absence of a worthwhile big commitment; something that would last for months, or years, and that required tons of research, frustration, euphoria, self-doubt and courage.
How Bullet Journaling Changed My Life
I can’t lie, I am a spoiled brat, but even I could see that during lockdown I was in a privileged situation, and I was ready to do whatever it took to take advantage of it.
Enter, the Bullet Journal.
5 Newsletters I’m not ready to unsubscribe from in 2022
While I try to summon the digital spirit of Marie Kondo—I needed a Christmas Miracle to go through my Instapaper list of articles—I unsubscribed from all the newsletters I didn’t have time to read, remaining with only 5 worthy survivors.
5 Magazines that Have Rejected Me in 2021
even if none of the magazines listed below published me, they all kindly replied letting me know that they had at least read my submission. Some of them sent back words of encouragement, some have been a bit more robotic; but they all replied.
Top 10 Books of 2021
Another year, another endless list of books I was supposed to pick up, a list of books I never finished and, though not as long as the other two, a list of books I have indeed read.
3 Lessons from “Scenes from a Marriage,” by Hagai Levi
Last weekend, just before my (non-English-speaking) mother in law came to visit, my wife and I devoured "Scenes from a Marriage," directed by Hagai Levi and starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. We loved it so much, we ended up preparing the spare room in the middle of the night—which, for us, starts at 11 pm.
How to Set Writing Goals
If you don't have a 50,000 words manuscript saved on your preferred cloud storage service, you have failed NaNoWriMo. You've set a too ambitious writing goal and for some reason, you couldn't deliver. Just like me.
3 Lessons from Margaret Atwood’s Masterclass
Although it can be described as a beginner’s course, listening to her words and looking at her witty face when she makes a joke is worth your time. If you’re a fan, as I am, you can’t miss it.
How Horror Found Me
“I wrote a story about life; about all the things that cannot be changed. I wrote about my fears and I tried to scare myself off writing it. And I did it. “
Should you keep an Idea Journal?
“This is probably the most controversial opinion I have about writing practice, although I’ve got one big name on my side.
Should you always keep an idea journal with you?
Well, it depends.“
A Lesson on Character Building
“Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's masterpiece is a bit like pizza. Even bad pizza is worth eating.”