Knight Writing Press
@knightwritingpress.bsky.social
Publisher of the Enrapturing Tales imprint anthologies as well as the Particular Passages anthologies. You can find us at: https://knightwritingpress.com/
@samknight.bsky.social 's #writingtips: Saving/backing up is more important than you think. I know authors who lost several finished, unpublished, novels at once. I save every day with a new, dated, file so I can compare revisions and I save locally as well as in the cloud. Be cautious.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: It's okay to plot. It's okay to make it up as you go. It's okay to do a combination of the two. Writing is an art. Explore it. Do it in ways that make you happy. Learn the why of rules to break them creatively. Don't let others hold you back.
@samknight.bsky.social 's #writingtips: We tend to measure our successes by other people's standards and whether they think we are successful. They are often wrong. Set your own goals and expectations for your success and be your own judge. And most importantly, be forgiving and fair.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Go back and look at the first word of all your paragraphs. If they all start with He, She, or a Name, then you are probably writing with repetitively structured sentences. That can be uninteresting, or worse, it can be off-putting. Change it up!
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: The most common questions are "where do you get your ideas" and "how do you make yourself sit down and write?" The truth is most of us are unable to turn off the idea factory in our heads and get really irritable if we DON'T sit down and write.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Getting a fanbase is hard. Some people do it near effortlessly, others...well, let's just say Sisyphus is not alone. Don't give up, ever, because if you do, you may as well give up writing. Which if you're willing to do, you shouldn't be a writer.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Some things really are only for a niche audience. If you are the type of writer who wants to write things that offend various groups of people, that's your choice, but submitting them to places that say not to is a bad choice. Don't be a jerk.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Challenge yourself to write a short story. Then challenge yourself to submit it somewhere. Then challenge yourself to keep submitting it until it gets accepted, even if you have to make changes. Get yourself published. You'll fee better.
It's that time of year! And right now the eBook is 50% off! Grab a blanket and snuggle up for an autumn read! books2read.com/u/4EpjEe
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: A lot of writers never think about run-on paragraphs. Just like in a run-on sentence, you look for where the ideas become new and then break it off. New idea, new sentence. New idea that is not as closely related, new paragraph.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: The entertainment industry is full of scams, cons, and thieves, AI BS, and legal ambiguities. Things will get worse before they get better. Protect your heart. Surround yourself with fans and creators who care, because we're all in this together.
@samknight.bsky.social is ... giddy? since returning from the Colorado Festival of Horror , so he wanted us to put this out there for all you new writers! First 10 people to use code BVTRE at checkout get a free eBook copy! (missed it? Use JKER8 for 50% off!) www.smashwords.com/books/view/1...
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Be generous of your time, knowledge, and support. Be sparing of your judgment and opinions. This helps everyone, including you to find the way forward and grow. This applies to writing, too.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: At a con seeing old friends, meeting new ones. It reminded me how important our relationship with other authors is. Go to your local cons, meet your fellow authors. Make friends, be a good human, and you will love this career even when you don't.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: A story is an agreement between reader and writer. If violated, the reader is betrayed. What is betrayal? Failing to entertain. No payoff at the end. Unreliable narrator without reason. Not telling promised story. Was a dream. Obvious mistakes.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: I have a template I start my writing with so I don't have to adjust things every time an update changes all the settings. I used the Shunn Manuscript format to set up my template, to meet most submission guidelines. www.shunn.net/format/story/
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Not every idea is a good idea. Some seem good until you start writing them. Not every idea is a bad idea. Some seem bad until you start writing them. Don't be afraid to try something. Don't be afraid to drop it an move on. Everything is learning.
It's getting ready to be that time of year again! Snuggle up with a blanket on the chilly nights and enjoy the crisp breeze and crisper leaves! amzn.to/4xgEZ6T
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: When you write, it's your world. Do what you want. Play the way you want. You don't have to follow standard conventions or meet standard expectations. In fact, by not doing so, you may make something really special. (Or not. Be careful...)
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: When people find out you are a writer, there are various ways they will react. Be prepared to be treated as a wastrel and revered at the same time. Learn to graciously turn down story ideas. Try to have friends who rescue you from conversations.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Not great at typing? Try dictating. Voice to text is pretty good now. Interesting side-effect I noticed: my dictated stories are very different. Both in style and voice. Like from a different person. I don't like it, that's why I don't dictate...
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: That thing, that scene, you think will be too hard to write, that's the one your story needs. Don't skip it or use a cut scene or just say it happened. Make your reader live it. You will be a better writer for it, and it will be a better story.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: Like drawing, writing is a learned skill. When you first start, you will not be as good as you want. Yes, we can all write a sentence. Yes we can all draw stick figures. It takes time to learn how to write a masterpiece just as it does to draw one
What Really Happened... Swamp gas? Weather balloons? Ball lightning? That couldn't really have been an atmospheric reflection of Venus, could it? Heck no! We're not saying it was aliens, but... 20 stories about What Really Happened amzn.to/4y4jjvu
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: It's okay to abandon a writing project. Then go back later and then abandon it again. No writing is wasted writing. You are always learning when you write. If you reached a point where you need to abandon something, you probably learned something.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: When you encounter a rule that you don't like, or that makes no sense to you, remember it is, or at least was, created for a reason. Try to figure out why before you disregard it. This is good life advice for everything, not just writing.
@samknight.bsky.social's #writingtips: You don't have to write what everyone else thinks you should write, and you don't have to write it the way they think you should either. In fact, if it doesn't make you happy, you shouldn't do it, because the writing industry is tough right now.
