In October 2019, I took the plunge. I made my first short-story submission to a paying market. The rejection came twelve days later. It was a higher tier rejection—the best kind, short of one bearing a personal note from the editor. I felt energized. I was—to steal Mur Lafferty’s phrasing—a working writer.
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When you’ve been writing for long enough, or once you’ve read enough how-to books for writers, you start to notice just how similar all the “different” advice you’re getting sounds. In Damn Fine Story: Mastering the Tools of a Powerful Narrative, veteran writer Chuck Wendig has crafted an irreverent guide to the one thing every writer should be striving for: how to tell good stories.
So you want to write a novel — now what? Well, unless you plan to pull 100,000-plus words from where the sun don’t shine, you’re going to want to do a bit of plotting before you begin. It’s ultimately up to you to decide how to plot your novel, but I’ve picked out five methods you can use to find success as a writer — whatever that means to you.
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Every October, I get a little bit jealous of my artist friends, who bust out their Inktober lists for 31 days of nonstop creative productivity. Instead of trying to get back to my artistic roots this year, I decided to publish an #InktoberWriting Challenge, for writers interested in making the month of October all about their craft. I’ve got two lists of 31 horror writing prompts for you below, so keep reading for your dose of spooky inspiration.
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