The Official Blog of A. E. Costello

NaNoWriMo: Day 1

Day 1 The goal is 2000 words a day. Today I wrote six words. That is not the goal set by the NaNoWriMo team. That word goal is 1,667. I chose 2000 because Stephen King in his book On Writing explained he writes at the minimum 2000 words a day, and won’t end the day…

National Novel Writing Month Prep

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? If you haven’t, I’ll tell you. The thirty days of November is a challenge to write 50,000 words in a month, to write a full-length novel in one month. It started in 1999, and while its internet-based, the program includes a lot more than thousands of people…

Get Writing Done: Set Deadlines

Writer’s Digest, a popular American magazine that focuses on writers and writing advice, has a pdf article called “Why A Writer Without a Deadline is Looking for Trouble.” It’s a downloadable link that you can find at the end of this post. Every time I slow down with my writing, procrastinate more and more, start…

Intentions Don’t Write Books

One day during conversation, a woman, let’s call her Lacy, asked me how I went about self-publishing my debut novel The Other Side, as she wanted to publish her book. I told her the process I went through with self-publishing through KDP. After, I asked Lacy about her book that she wants to publish. Lacy…

A. E. Reads: Bitten by Kelley Armstrong [Book Review]

For the first of my A. E. Reads: Book Reviews, I read Bitten, Kelley Armstrong’s 2001 debut novel. I originally read it when it first came out, and loved it. Bitten is about Elena Michaels, an adult werewolf who is determined to live in the human society, to be as “normal” as possible. She…

The Truth About Procrastination

There are days when I can’t write. Nothing on the paper. Nothing on the computer. Blank space. What am I waiting for? What am I afraid of? What holds my fingers back from the keys and keeps my pen from the paper? Most people would probably say fear. Fear of failure. Fear that whatever I…