All Posts · F. L. Stevens

2024

Let's Try This Again Mon 02 September 2024

Remote Writing Update Fri 10 May 2024

The Lure of Fiction Tue 09 April 2024

More Technomad Travels Tue 02 April 2024

A Sample Scene Sun 11 February 2024

Game Tools Fri 26 January 2024

Changing Blog Tools Thu 25 January 2024

More McGuffin Ideas Mon 22 January 2024

2023

Logline Help Tue 29 August 2023

Hero's Journey Revisited Tue 22 August 2023

Boss Bottle Mon 29 May 2023

The Quest Fri 26 May 2023

Remote Writing Mon 08 May 2023

Working and Traveling Mon 08 May 2023

Sidebar Project Sun 12 February 2023

The North Carolina House Mon 16 January 2023

2022

The Veil Thu 01 December 2022

Beat, Scene, Chapter Wed 16 November 2022

Back West for Winter Sat 12 November 2022

NaNoWriMo Wed 02 November 2022

Another Tack Sat 15 October 2022

Some Real Work Mon 12 September 2022

Outlines and Details Tue 16 August 2022

Taxing Work Sat 30 July 2022

Focused Writing Sun 05 June 2022

The One-Page Novel Beat Sheet Thu 02 June 2022

Upgraded Web Pages Thu 03 March 2022

Character Design, Revised Sun 16 January 2022

Inspiration Thu 06 January 2022

2021

Speculative and Bespoke Work Mon 06 December 2021

East Coast “Home” Sat 04 September 2021

2021 Eastbound — Boom Sun 22 August 2021

Third Leg of 2021 Westbound Sat 31 July 2021

Second Leg of the 2021 Westbound Trip Sat 17 July 2021

Back on-line 2021 Westbound Sun 11 July 2021

FindMeSpot Wed 07 July 2021

The First Leg the 2021 Westbound Trip Mon 05 July 2021

Violence, Consequences, and Retribution Sat 26 June 2021

The 2021 Crossings Mon 14 June 2021

Moving Day Sun 13 June 2021

The Road Calls Tue 08 June 2021

Travel writing and the Daring Enterprise Fri 21 May 2021

The Verb Form of “Nomad" Thu 20 May 2021

Trying to “explain” retirement Mon 10 May 2021

The tyranny of “desk toys” Mon 12 April 2021

Ending One Job — Focusing On The Other Fri 09 April 2021

The Time Crunch Fri 26 March 2021

Non-Fiction Progress (Feb) Tue 23 February 2021

Co-Author Big Sigh Tue 05 January 2021

2020

Non-Fiction Progress (Dec) Sat 05 December 2020

Scrivener and Word Count Target Wed 21 October 2020

Horror Wed 14 October 2020

Aspirations Thu 24 September 2020

Restructuring Sun 06 September 2020

An Important Lesson Wed 02 September 2020

Subsequent Drafts — Lesson Learned Thu 13 August 2020

The Ancillary Texts Sat 08 August 2020

Home Again Tue 28 July 2020

The 2020 Journey — Part II Sun 05 July 2020

The 2020 Journey — Part I Fri 03 July 2020

Almost Ready Mon 29 June 2020

Once Isn’t Enough Sat 27 June 2020

That Got Complicated Sat 27 June 2020

Second Editions Sun 19 April 2020

COVID-19 Sun 22 March 2020

Geology Mon 10 February 2020

Saving Some Notes Sat 01 February 2020

2019

Word Count Sat 21 December 2019

Not Stalled — Exactly Mon 16 December 2019

Voice Sat 09 November 2019

Gut-Wrenching Tue 22 October 2019

Pitch Writing — A One-Two Punch Tue 08 October 2019

More Querying Tue 24 September 2019

Drama and Character Arc Tue 24 September 2019

Structure Sun 01 September 2019

Digesting More Query Letter Advice Sat 31 August 2019

Character Design Sat 24 August 2019

Editing and Beta Readers Mon 19 August 2019

Going Nowhere Sun 18 August 2019

Additional Critical Reading Thoughts Sun 04 August 2019

Critical Reading Thu 01 August 2019

Foreshadowing Sat 27 July 2019

Critiques and Beta Readers Mon 15 July 2019

World-Building Nuance — Coinage of the Realm Thu 04 July 2019

Points of View Sun 30 June 2019

Thoughts on Some Writing Strategies Sat 22 June 2019

Work Time Thu 20 June 2019

MC Parallels Wed 19 June 2019

I Don’t Want to Eat My Broccoli Fri 14 June 2019

Reveals and Anticipation Sat 08 June 2019

The Size Problem Sun 02 June 2019

Empires and Kingdoms Sat 01 June 2019

The Return Sun 26 May 2019

The Initiation: Road of Trials to the Ultimate Boon Tue 21 May 2019

Today's Dark Place [Updated] Sun 19 May 2019

Prepared for Departure Sat 18 May 2019

A Kind of Hero’s Journey Sun 12 May 2019

Complications [updated] Sun 12 May 2019

Found My Missing Map and — Who’s That? Sun 28 April 2019

Drat — Wrong Computer Sat 27 April 2019

Roget’s Thesaurus: a Taxonomy of Concepts Sat 20 April 2019

The ABC’s of Querying Sun 14 April 2019

More Pitch-Writing Practice Sat 13 April 2019

Pitch-Writing Practice, part II Fri 12 April 2019

Querying and Pitch-Writing Practice Tue 09 April 2019

More Character Conflicts — Where Are Their Boundaries? Sat 30 March 2019

Book V — A Glimpse Wed 27 March 2019

Five Movies Sun 24 March 2019

Timeline vs. Flashbacks Wed 27 February 2019

Two Sentences Fri 22 February 2019

Opening Action Mon 28 January 2019

Advice Sat 19 January 2019

Query Shark Wed 09 January 2019

The Red Knight’s Marginal Victories Tue 01 January 2019

2018

Leap — No, Wait — Leap — Reconsider — Leap Mon 24 December 2018

Volition, Compulsion, and the Vast Space In Between Fri 21 December 2018

Scope of Action Sat 15 December 2018

The Map Fri 14 December 2018

Moving Forward Tue 11 December 2018

Minor Bad Guy Conundrum Sun 02 December 2018

Outlining vs. an Alternative Sun 25 November 2018

Querying Thu 22 November 2018

The Trailer View Mon 12 November 2018

Grimdark Fri 02 November 2018

Verbal Tics Sun 21 October 2018

Pressure Sat 13 October 2018

Dropping the F-Bomb Sat 06 October 2018

Non-Fiction Interruption Fri 14 September 2018

How to Tell You’re In A Novel Wed 29 August 2018

Best Rejection So Far Sun 05 August 2018

An Improvement Sun 22 July 2018

A mcGuffin Epiphany Thu 12 July 2018

Second Stand-Alone Story Fri 29 June 2018

What a Mistake Wed 06 June 2018

Cover Art and High Concepts Fri 25 May 2018

Another List of Rewrites Sat 05 May 2018

A Sad/Happy Thought Thu 19 April 2018

The Damaged Hero Sat 07 April 2018

Pre-Final Drafts Thu 05 April 2018

World History, Part II Fri 23 March 2018

World History, Part I Fri 23 March 2018

Inspired By Sun 18 March 2018

What’s at Stake? Sat 10 March 2018

Approaches to World-Building Thu 22 February 2018

Drake and McTrowell Tue 20 February 2018

Chop That Out, Too Thu 08 February 2018

And then the murders began Sun 28 January 2018

The Agent Search Sun 21 January 2018

Randomness and Inspiration Wed 17 January 2018

Backstory Mon 15 January 2018

Time, Focus, Intention, Love Sat 13 January 2018

2017

Personification Mon 25 December 2017

Gritty, Detailed, Immersive Thu 21 December 2017

Over-Engineering Sat 16 December 2017

Ouch. That was an ill-conceived mess Sat 09 December 2017

The Debut Novel Problem Sun 03 December 2017

Place Names Sat 25 November 2017

Gritty and Detailed Fri 24 November 2017

Character Details Fri 10 November 2017

Second Edition Mon 06 November 2017

One Too Many Monsters Thu 26 October 2017

Revisions and Rethinking Tue 24 October 2017

Social Media Mon 16 October 2017

Distractions and Coffee Shops Sat 07 October 2017

The Dungeon Issue Mon 02 October 2017

Tools and Outlines Mon 25 September 2017

Dreaming of my Characters Sat 16 September 2017

Drafts and Read-Aloud Wed 13 September 2017

Hero’s Journey Wed 06 September 2017

Step Away From The Keyboard Mon 28 August 2017

Waking Up In The Middle Of The Night Thu 17 August 2017

Vacation Writing Tue 15 August 2017

Marketing Fri 11 August 2017

The Luxury of Time Tue 08 August 2017

Outlines and Tyranny Tue 08 August 2017