Daniel Honey

Main Points • Use real life objects to generate new fictional names, cultures, countries, and nations. • A single fruit can generate enough ideas for an entire country. • Have a playlist of ideas to consider when world building. Use at least some of them. Intro Creating fantasy worlds generally means creating entire fictional worlds, which requires A LOT of content generation: unique names, distinct cultures, belief systems, countries, political systems, etc. And that’s all before considering the plot! I’ve…

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Main Points • Writing is hard and the voices telling you you’re a failure can be overwhelming. • Take a break to sharpen your saw. • Switch tasks to keep it interesting. • Celebrate small victories. • Force yourself forward. Intro Writing can be difficult. Sometimes I’m pounding my head against the keyboard, wondering how to make it all better. Some days, I struggle to just get started or keep going. I get jealous when I hear about other authors…

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Main Points • Playlists are a helpful list of questions/solutions to overcome specific challenges. • Keep refining your playlists as you continue to write. • When you come across a pertinent problem, review your playlist to generate new ideas. Intro I came across the formalized version of playlists from the book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip and Dan Heath. While the book is about making better decisions in life (not on writing), the…

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Main Points • Give your book some space initially. • Look for strengths you can emphasize and weaknesses you can improve on. • Get other eyes to look at it (beta readers, writers’ group, etc.). • Divide the book into important segments. Work on just revising those, one by one. • Use playlists. • Experiment and learn about different revising techniques. Learn what works for you. Intro I’m more of a discovery writer, which means I have to do a…

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Main Points • Writers’ groups can be HUGELY beneficial. • You may need to try on a few groups until you find the right one. • Diversity is king. Try to get people with different ways of thinking and experiences. • Figure out what you want out of a writers’ group, then either look for it or create it yourself. Intro Writers’ groups can be hugely beneficial to your writing abilities. They can point out where you’re going wrong, point…

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Main Points • Writers have different personalities. What works for you might not work for someone else and that’s okay. • Discovery writing (non-outlining) gets started faster but generally requires more revision. • Outliners take a lot of time initially but require less revision. • Try adopting different techniques/practices from the other side. • Leverage your strengths as a writer and mitigate your weaknesses. Intro Discovery writing versus outlining. Writing by the seat-of-your-pants versus planning ahead. Diving into your work…

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