Let's talk about... time management

November was a mixed bag for me. I was pretty ill for most of it (and still am), so there was no way I was going to finish my fifth book that month.

However, I did get into the habit of writing one thousand words per day (that seems to be my Goldilocks amount) AND I figured out how to significantly streamline my time on my computer. Check out my tips on my friend Thea Atkinson's blog for more, but be warned- I'm not telling you anything new. Clean out your inbox, use your calendar and task list, and use lists wherever you can to streamline. What might be a little different: I'm a big fan of bookmarks and I cannot say enough about how great Instapaper is.

We have only so much time. First step: decide how we want to spend it.

Why should you listen to me? Because using these tips has allowed me to spend much less time on my computer than I did before, and I think freeing up that time is a big part of why I'm writing so much more consistently than I was before.

Please enjoy those tips while I make myself yet more tea and toast...

Building a Better Villain

Thea Atkinson, author of character-driven fiction, features my thoughts on what makes a good villain. For starters, in many cases it's all about how you define a villain:

What is a villain? Various dictionaries give different answers: a deliberate criminal or scoundrel; one blamed for a particular evil or difficulty; a character in a story who opposes a hero. My favorite comes from, of all places, Google: a person guilty or capable of a crime or wickedness. Because, when pushed far enough, I think most of the characters I write for are. Depending on how we define “wicked”, Emily, the main character of my book The Smartest Girl in the Room might be accused of being a villain; certainly, stealing someone’s drugs and punching another in the jaw right before you blackmail them are criminal. But, I submit, Emily isn’t a villain at all: she’s a young woman trying to protect her friends. If her actions are questionable, her motives aren’t.

Which leads me to my first observation:

1. Villainy is about perspective. You, the reader, know immediately that Emily isn’t a villain because you know what led her to her actions. Someone else (say, law enforcement) might not be so forgiving. Emily is trying to protect her best friend Zainab from someone she hasn’t trusted since the first chapter. What she does is ill-advised (breaking the law should be avoided at all costs), but you know why she did it. If someone else did the same things but for a different reason- they really wanted to get their hands on a stash of drugs, for example- your conclusion might be different.

Please check out GonzoInk to read on.

Can you use Star trek for inspiration?

I promise, folks, I will not put up too many links that are more for writers than readers, but this is about Star Trek!!! My favorite series- I'm more of a Star Trek fan than a sci-fi fan, shh- *and* this series just might come up in my novel...