Writing is Hard Part 3: Graduate School

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It didn’t feel right to talk about this before I finished my graduate school work. So, here I am in this candid moment to tell you about balancing graduate school and writing. I don’t feel the most qualified, as I don’t have an agent, don’t have anything published, and have trunked a project. But I did write 2+ books in 15 months, so that’s…something.

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Writing is Hard Part 1: Hiatus

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Originally, this was going to be about how I always hit a point in my writing where I want to delete my book. Turns out, it was just a symptom of burning out. So, I’m talking about the necessity to take a break sometimes and common thought processes that can interrupt it.

(Photo by Ilham Rahmansyah on Unsplash)

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Rewrite 3: Finding a Common Thread

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Recently, I went to an event with the amazing Victor LaValle and we talked about the course in introductory novel writing that he teaches. What stuck out to me was that he said that many beginner writers lack focus in this work. There’s an . And I realized that that was totally true about my work during the first draft, way back in college when my writing was actual trash.

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How To (Re)write: Backspace is Your Friend

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Deleting words is just as important as writing them. When you’re trying to hit that desired 50,000, 75,000, 100,000 or whatever word count, you’re not focused on things to keep and get rid of. I have two tips on how to get rid of excess words. One takes work, the other is self-explanatory.

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On Blood Magic

blood magic title cardI’ve just finished playing Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II and reading A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. Both books tackle the idea of having blood magic, which gives me food for thought as I develop the seven main magical systems in my work.

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