Event March 31! In Which I Get to Hang Out With Mary Robinette Kowal in Chicago!

I'm excited to share that on March 31, I'll be at Volumes Bookcafe in Chicago to talk about fantasy, writing, and Torn with the incredible Hugo-award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal! (If you haven't read her Shades of Milk and Honey, you are in for a treat!)

Join us at 7:30 (Central time zone)! I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

More on the event here!

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Accountable to the Page: Writing and Schedules

Tuesday I shared what gets me motivated to write--today I'm thinking about what I can do to hold myself to write. Having a schedule or goal or other expectation keeps you accountable to your work--and the best partner, I think, to creativity is accountability. We writers have a little problem most of the time during our writing careers: We aren't accountable to anyone but ourselves and the page--no boss, no time card, no nosy coworkers--so we have to create that accountability for ourselves. I want more of a schedule-based writing life, and a few ways of doing so have emerged for me: 1) The Clock Method . This one is basic--you clock in, you clock out. Your butt is in your chair for a set number of hours each day, hands on keyboard, writing. 2) The Goal Method . A little more flexible, but also, in my opinion, harder to hold yourself to. You have a daily (or, depending on your schedule and lifestyle, weekly) writing goal, and you meet it by scheduling yourself to com

Going to Your Happy (Writing) Place

Slumps happen. Sometimes they're life-induced--no matter how much of a superwriter you are, it's not easy to balance giant life changes and normal writing habits. Sometimes they're creativity-zappage-induced--everyone hits a point where you just don't feel like writing. Or thinking. Or being creative or imaginative at all. Either way, when you decide to get back in the swing of things, I find two things help. One is a schedule--more on that on Thursday. The other is finding your happy place. No, seriously. I don't do the tortured artist thing. Even if I'm writing something deep or introspective or dark (umm, as deep or dark as I can get, anyway...), I find I do much better if I start with a smile. Or at least not a scowl. So I've identified a few things that never fail to put me in a better mood--and a more optimistic mood is a better writing mood, at least for me. Because if you're feeling like a giant pessimist, you start to

Plot Crap

If you ever watch a movie with my husband and I, you're very likely, if it's not a great movie and sometimes even if it is, to hear me exclaim at some point, "OK, this is total plot crap, right?" What do I mean by plot crap? And does it apply to books? Are you calling this plot crap? Plot crap does not mean crappy plot. In fact, it can often have nothing to do with how well a story is plotted. A great example of plot crap is the movie Gladiator . Now, I love this movie. I love the story, the incredibly orchestrated battle scenes, even the soundtrack. But the historical facts framing the film? Total plot crap. Sure, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus existed...but there are a lot of factual missteps. There's no evidence that Marcus Aurelius ever wanted to restore the Republic, therefore the basis of the film's struggle is historical plot crap. (Commodus also didn't die in the arena, but was strangled in his bath. Sometimes truth really is more

Rowenna, Writing

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