I am proud to say that I am a HUGE fan of Her Interactive‘s Nancy Drew video game series. (I’m slightly less proud to admit that I actually dreamed about the games last night–seriously.) I confess I’ve never read any of the traditional books, though I have read the first half dozen or so ofContinue reading “Nancy Drew short story contest”
Tag Archives: writing exercises
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #3
Well, it’s (un)official: Last Saturday, after two marathon writing sessions and just one day after last week’s update, I passed the 50,000-word goal. That’s seventeen days early, and two days earlier than I crossed the finish line last year. It feels epic. And it happened right on time, too, because I spent the day afterContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #3”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #2
This week I’m just posting one long section from my NaNoWrimo novel. I’ve been writing all over the place this week, but I’ve finally gotten into the meat (or the blood?) of the story concept, and this passage–a bit expository, I know–sort of encapsulates that concept. (Plus it’s a nice glimpse of how fringe-nutty myContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #2”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #1
Today, I am five days into NaNoWriMo. My current official word count (not counting the writing I’ve already done today) is 13,666 words, with an average of 3,416.5 words per day. This is a pretty frenetic pace, really, and I don’t expect to keep it up throughout the month (yesterday, for example, I actually wroteContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo update #1”
Photo blog 28
“Balloon face.” Mask on red balloon in decorative reeds. Abu Dhabi, UAE, 31 October 2010. I’m a few days into NaNoWriMo by now, and I’m working on characters. So far, my favorite is probably the seductive but cold (and ultimately evil) Portia Lynn, whose stone-white face and emotional distance this mask makes me think of. Continue reading “Photo blog 28”
Some tips for new WriMos
I was browsing my Middle East Regional forum over at the NaNoWriMo website today and found a post thread that I imagine is showing up on everyone’s discussion forums: tips for first-time WriMos (a “WriMo” is someone participating in NaNoWriMo, though to be honest, I’m not a fan of the term). The first question, unsurprisingly,Continue reading “Some tips for new WriMos”
A Writer’s Notebook: Found poem (from Nizar Qabbani)
I’m in Dubai this weekend, visiting friends. Yesterday, I spent part of my day on the Dubai campus of Zayed University, where, in a hallway leading to the campus library, I found a row of large, framed prints, each bearing–in Arabic and in English–lines of poetry. The lines all come from existing poetry, but theyContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Found poem (from Nizar Qabbani)”
A Writer’s Notebook: My nephew’s assignment
Yesterday, my sister sent me an e-mail which contained a story my nephew Aidan had written. His story was about a string, and it reminded me of my own string story, which I began to write for my nephew. And then–because Aidan’s story was a school writing assignment–I realized this would make an excellent Writer’sContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: My nephew’s assignment”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo outline
This is perhaps a bit early — National Novel Writing Month is still two weeks away — but I’ve had this project (and vampires in general) on the brain lately, so I figured I might as well get started. (SPOILER ALERT: If anyone feels like following along with my progress on this book during NaNoWriMo, skipContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo outline”
A Writer’s Notebook: Photo story
My wife turned our laptop around the other day and showed me this photo and said, “You should write about this.” So, first, the photo, and then the writing. And then, the exercise. People think I do this for money. I put out a box and I don’t object when people drop money in it. Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: Photo story”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 