To catch you up, I’m taking the StoryGrid live scene writing course and I’m posting my practice scenes, because why not? For this one, I’ll post the original scene first, followed by the revised scene. The revisions are based on the notes from my coach, and I think the result is very solid.

Kristen IllarmoNovember 30, 2024Comment

A winning pitch at the Louisiana Book Fest!

It took me about an hour to get comfortable, but once I settled in, I pitched every person who passed my table, which was a lot of people. How could you possibly pitch everyone you might (sensibly ask). Well, my pitch was to shout out tropes that show up in the Kirasu Rising series.

Kristen IllarmoNovember 18, 2024Comment

Story Time: Week 1 in StoryGrid's scene writing workshop

The chief reason I am taking this course is because I want to write better, faster. I’ve written plenty of meandering first drafts where I’m finding the story and learning the characters, plot, world all at the same time and the second draft is a total rewrite and it takes two years to get a book out. That’s where I live. But… I have so many ideas for stories and new series and wouldn’t it be great if I didn’t take two years to write a damn book! Yes, the answer is yes, it would be great.

Science Fiction, Writing fiction, editingKristen IllarmoNovember 18, 2024Comment

Charlie and the Fur Ball: Scene writing practice

Easy job, she’d said. The pay just happened to be what he needed to get off this swamp infested rat trap of a planet. Just pick up the package and deliver it. And, oh yeah, don’t let the package bite you. That should have been a clue.

Science Fiction, Writing fictionKristen IllarmoNovember 18, 2024Comment

Break through that writer's block

You’ve heard you need to buckle down and get the first draft written, but do you believe it? If you find yourself editing previous scenes before writing the next scene, you are likely stopping yourself from just getting it written (i.e., completing the first draft). If you stop yourself from writing a scene because you think it might not be the right scene for the finished product but don’t know what other scene is better, you are definitely stopping yourself from finishing the first draft (and this is what I did in spades).

Writing fiction, editingKristen IllarmoOctober 14, 2021Writer's block, Fiction writing, writing fiction, first draftComment

Write at your pace, but make room to write

Have 15 minutes? Start the scene. I also always leave a few lines about what should come next, so I don’t have to start with a blank page when I next pick it up.

Writing fiction, Science Fiction, PublishingKristen IllarmoOctober 7, 2021Time for writing, Time management, writing practiceComment

Witches of Grimm Book Tour and Giveaway

Blog Tour, Book Marketing, Publishing, Writing fictionKristen IllarmoOctober 3, 2021Blog Tour, Dark Fantasy, Spooky books, C.M. AdlerComment

What's in a name?

From the very beginning, Without A World had a name; it was called A Place Between. All of my drafts are labeled APB. That title made sense because Miranda, the main character, is caught between two worlds, and for a portion of the book, is suspended between them both.

Book Marketing, Writing fictionKristen IllarmoSeptember 30, 2021Book Marketing, Naming BooksComment

Novella as a Marketing Tool

We learn fairly quickly in act 1 that Beda and Miranda are, in fact, not from Earth and could have had a better life if they had not come here. But Without A World does not answer this basic question about why Beda came to Earth and why she only brought one child, Miranda with her.

Publishing, Book MarketingKristen IllarmoSeptember 10, 2021Book Marketing, NovellaComment