The Blog

Writing craft, product updates, and thoughts on the creative process.

When Was Your Tale
When Was Your Tale

Your story's tense isn't just a grammar choice - it's a contract with your reader. Past tense says the narrator survived. The present tense says anything can happen. Which one are you signing?

Who is Telling Your Tale? A Guide to Narrative Perspectives
Who is Telling Your Tale? A Guide to Narrative Perspectives

Whether consciously or unconsciously, there is one question you have to answer within the first few sentences of your story: Who is telling this tale? For most writers, the choice...

Why I Built a Writing App Instead of Writing My Novel
Why I Built a Writing App Instead of Writing My Novel

Quill Loop is equal parts passion project and procrastination project, and it would almost certainly not exist if I hadn't tried to write a novel.When I started my manuscript the w...

Messy is the goal, not the Consequence
Messy is the goal, not the Consequence

If you are a new writer there is one piece of advice you need to hear first, above anything else I or anyone else can give you. Your first draft sucks. No qualification, no buts —...

No, Quill Loop Isn't Yet Another Word Processor
No, Quill Loop Isn't Yet Another Word Processor

We get it. You've got Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and Scrivener. The world needs another word processor about as much as it needs a hole in the head.But here is the thing: Quill L...

The Tasty November Challenge - Introducing Nanaimo
The Tasty November Challenge - Introducing Nanaimo

There is no way around it: writing has changed over the last few years, and one major driver is causing that change - AI.AI has, for better or worse, changed the very fabric of the...

Should you take your pants off to write?
Should you take your pants off to write?

When a lot of writers start their first novel, they assume the process is pretty simple: you open your text editor of choice, type out "In the beginning..." (or some variant), hamm...

What the %^&* was my character’s name again?
What the %^&* was my character’s name again?

Picture this: You are deep in Chapter 2. The monsters are coming out of the cave, the terrified villagers are watching from the background, waiting to see what will happen, hoping...

No, Scrolling isn't research - how to stop chasing motivation and start making it
No, Scrolling isn't research - how to stop chasing motivation and start making it

Don't lie. You and I both know you're guilty of this.You say you'll sit down to write as soon as the muse strikes. But when you finally sit at your desk, you suddenly realize you d...