Blog Archives

A Writing To Do List

Posted on Sunday, March 26, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

If you are like me, you are juggling several writing projects in various stages. I have many chores that I have in a to-do list as well. I use Microsoft’s My Day. I use it because I can access the…

Scene Descriptions

Posted on Sunday, March 19, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Scenes are the building blocks of novels. That makes them important. You pantsers can ignore this blog. I’m talking about plotting a story out. I use a form that I created to do this work. The form has a name,…

When The Words Won’t Come

Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

This blog is about the dreaded writer’s block. We all suffer from it. Of course we don’t suffer all at the same time, but we do suffer from it. You’ll be writing and without warning. There. Are. No. More. Words.…

Tagged with: fiction writing, scenes, words, writer's block, writing, writing revision, Writing Techniques
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

Timed Writing as Meditation

Posted on Sunday, February 19, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Timed writing has quite a few functions. It can generate ideas for stories, or for solving problems. Did you know it can help with your mental health? It can. You can use it to meditate. You set aside a little…

Beat Sheet Deep Dive Act III

Posted on Sunday, February 12, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Act three is also called synthesis. It has three beats. This part fuses the first two acts. Things finally get fixed here. It starts about eighty percent of the way in the story. There is a breakthrough. The hero finally…

Tagged with: act 3, act III, beat sheet, beat sheets, plotting, plotting aids, writing, writing beats, Writing Techniques
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

The Beat Sheet Deep Dive: Act II pt 2

Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

We are examining the beat sheet in detail. This is the second part of our dive into the second act. The second act is where we find the bulk of the story. We’re at the point of a plot twist.…

The Beat Sheet Deep Dive: Act II pt 1

Posted on Sunday, January 22, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

Welcome to the next part of our deep dive into the beat sheet. We’ve looked at the beats that make up the first act. Now it’s time for the second act. This is where things get real for the main…

The Beat Sheet Deep Dive: Act I

Posted on Sunday, January 15, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

The next beat is to state the theme. This needs to be subtle. Don’t have anyone in the story say it aloud, so to speak. Show it. Don’t tell the reader. No one in life says my life is about…

Tagged with: act II, beat sheets, writing, writing background work, writing beats, Writing Techniques
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques

The Beat Sheet: An Overview

Posted on Sunday, January 8, 2023 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

When you are starting a story, you need to know approximately where things should happen. It helps you to maintain the pacing of your story. There is a great tool for this process — the beat sheet. I use a…

Managing Your Writing Time

Posted on Sunday, November 27, 2022 by pebblepup — Leave a comment

If you are like me, you are juggling a lot of ideas, written drafts, brainstorming, and other writing tasks. You may feel as though there isn’t enough time to deal with it all. It is easy to manage your tasks…

Tagged with: time management, writing, Writing Techniques, writing time, writing time management
Posted in General Opinion, Writing Techniques