NaNoWriMo, the organization behind National Novel Writing Month, seems to be writing its own grave lately. There has already been a grim shadow looming over the organization since the forums scandal of 2023, but a recent statement from NaNoWriMo HQ regarding the use of AI in the writing process has been one of if not the last nails in its coffin. The conversations I've seen online have ranged from debate and vexation to bitterness and deletion of accounts. But amid them, I've

Back in 2020, I wrote a series of posts about pen names including reasons a writer might choose to write with a nom de plume and some tips for choosing one of your own. However, I haven't talked as much about the inspiration behind my pen name. Pseudonyms have a purpose. And for many writers who use them, there's often a meaningful reason behind the name they adopt. I knew I wanted to write with a pen name as early as the first draft of my first attempt at writing a novel at

A quick selfie with THE flash drive before the handoff I'm not one to hide my love of writing. It's the first thing I mention when a new acquaintance asks me what I like to do for fun. Throughout high school, you'd hardly see me without my black three-ring binder that held my first handwritten attempt at a novel and got so beat up that its spine was eventually held together with duct tape. And during slower shifts at my day job, you might catch me scribbling down drafts for u

Happy September, readers! These past few months, I've been on a half-hiatus that I called a Summer Scale Back, during which I shifted to a bi-weekly upload schedule to focus on my fiction and to accommodate for a change in my schedule due to extended seasonal hours at my day job. It was nice to have my writing time be dedicated (mostly) to A Tided Love for the first time since I started it in November for NaNoWriMo 2023, but returning to it after a longer-than-expected break

If you want to pursue the traditional publishing route and be signed by a literary agent, you're going to need a query letter to formally introduce yourself and your manuscript. There are multiple components of a query letter, and among the most crucial to get right are comp titles. And it's not just querying writers who must contend with comp titles, as they're also good for indie and hybrid authors to have, too. But determining your comp titles isn't always easy. For some w

As you'll often see me say on the blog, there is no singular approach to writing. We all have methods that work perfectly for us and ones that don't. Some of these are instinctual, whereas others are learned through trial and error or from fellow writers. The subject of today's post is among the latter and something that has made my drafting and revision process just a touch smoother with just two letters: TK. What Does TK Mean? TK originates as a publishing shorthand used to