Hannah Yang is an American speculative fiction writer. Her work has appeared in Apex, Fantasy, The Dark, Nightmare, and more.
Over the past few months, I wrote a novel in a way I’ve never tried writing a novel before. And it poured out surprisingly easily—much more so than any of the other novel projects I’ve worked on. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun developing a first draft. But on the flipside, it also came with a lot of unique challenges. It’s a process I’ve been referring to as the “Russian dolls method”…
A few days ago, I got my first short story acceptance from Clarkesworld Magazine! I’ve been submitting my work to Clarkesworld for almost five years now, and I’ve only received form rejections up until now. At this point, I could probably recite the Clarkesworld form rejection by heart (which would be a very boring party trick). One fun thing about submitting so many stories to the same market is…
If you’re not part of the writing community, or if you’re just starting your writing journey, the process of getting a book deal with a traditional publishing house might seem pretty opaque. When I first started writing, I assumed that you could just send your manuscript to a publisher and then, if they liked it, they’d turn it into a Real BookTM. Turns out it’s a little more complicated than…
Back in high school, when I was agonizing over my future career path, my dad told me to make a list of the things in life that make me happy. Then, split the list into two categories. The first category includes any type of happiness that you can feel instantaneously. Sipping hot chocolate on a chilly day. Hitting the snooze button to steal another five minutes of sleep. Binge-watching the new…
In last week’s blog post, I talked about how to incorporate outlining into your novel-writing process, even if you’re a pantser. This week, I’ll be answering a slightly different question: what kind of story structure should you use in your novel outline? The honest answer is that it depends. There are countless shapes a story can take, and certain ones might suit your writing process better than…
A lot of writers are surprised when I tell them that I’m a pantser who loves to outline. If you’re not familiar with the terms “pantser” and “plotter,” these are categories for two types of writers. Plotters like to plot out their stories in advance so they know what’s going to happen next, while pantsers prefer to fly by the seat of their pants and discover their stories as they write them. It…
In elementary school, I always learned that there are three points of view (POVs)—first person, second person, and third person. Which is true. Kind of. But it’s not the full truth. One of my biggest awakenings as a writer was the realization that POV is more of a spectrum than a set of categories. POV is just a word for the viewpoint through which you watch the story unfold, and there are…
I’m in the early stages of writing a new YA fantasy novel right now, and one of my favorite parts of the process is brainstorming the magic system. Every time I create a new fantasy world, I start by asking myself a set of 22 questions. The answers to these questions always give me a great starting point for fleshing out how magic works in this world, and often, they even affect my characters,…
One of my favorite pieces of writing advice is that no story can be everybody’s cup of tea. It just has to be somebody’s. The post Why You Need to Know Your Ideal Reader appeared first on HANNAH YANG .
Writing a book is a marathon, not a sprint. If you want to stay motivated, it’s crucial to keep track of your progress as you go. But there are many ways to define “progress”—and the definition you choose can make a drastic impact on how you end up spending your writing time. So, here are three popular methods you can use to track your writing progress, and a few pros and cons of each. Method 1:…