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Book Talk: What I Read in March
As I mentioned in my February reading list blog, I’m currently reading a book every week in 2025. So, this blog is about what I read in March. If you want to follow my journey, I’ve also gone ahead and finally created a Goodreads account. I’m still figuring out how to use it. I might’ve reviewed some books I haven’t read yet but I’ll update it as I go along. The plan was to only rate books I’ve read this year but Goodreads wanted me to rate a few before I got started. So naturally, I might have gotten carried away with my obsession with Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.…
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On Writing Dialogue: How to Write Better & Believable Lines
After dropping my marathon of a guide on world building, I think the next best topic to cover would be on writing dialogue. Specifically, writing better dialogue. One of the biggest criticisms I got on my manuscript’s first round of edits was on this. While my world building was strong, characters pretty good, I found myself often telling, rather than showing through my dialogues. And if you’re anyone with a tiny bit of interest in writing, you know how important dialogues can be. They can reveal critical information, help us understand the psychology or motivation of a character, or through subtext, also give us a glimpse in the potential trajectory…
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On Worldbuilding: A Comprehensive Guide
Worldbuilding is hard, to put it mildly. It doesn’t matter if you’re a fantasy writer, or a contemporary fiction writer, you’re going to struggle with worldbuilding. It’s pretty much on par with writing a book. Or even a short story, to be honest. After all, you want your readers to know where your story is set in. Generally, when I’m writing a short story, I like to set my characters in today’s world. Of course, I would argue that short stories can be easier to write because you can choose to focus on a moment in time, or a particular scene only. But with novels, you can’t get away with…
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Book Talk: What I Read in February
As per my new year’s resolution, I’ve been reading a book every week. So, this blog will be the first in a series and it’s basically a what I read in February kind of a book tag/thing. Not entirely sure what I’m up to. Of course, I’ve had super busy weeks at work where I didn’t get the time to finish a book, but I’ve been making up for it. In fact, I’m actually only three books behind my target. So, naturally, I’ve decided to set some accountability guard rails for myself. And I’m doing this by posting my reading list on this blog every month. I might go into…
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How to Fix the Theme Missing “style.css” Error
Funny story: as I may or may not have mentioned in the image captions last week, I’ve been helping a friend build a website. And naturally, as it so happens with these things, we came across this error: theme missing style.css. I won’t lie; I spent a lot of time tinkering around WordPress, trying to figure out how to fix this issue. In the end, it turned out to be a rather dumb—silly, really—thing. So, that got me thinking that a lot of new bloggers may have also experienced this and hence, this blog idea came about. So, picture this: you’ve just downloaded an amazing custom theme for your WordPress…
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How to Make Your Website More Mobile-Friendly?
Industry leaders have been talking about the importance of mobile-friendly websites for a very long time. Seriously, I remember back in 2019 when I’d just landed my first real job, the SEO manager at the startup I was working at quit over it. Yeah, he was adamant on making everything on our service’s website more mobile-friendly; wanted developers to maybe think of an app? The man was really good at what he did, by the way. He actually helped me understand a lot of the fundamentals with SEO. I won’t lie; before that, while freelancing, I’d get keywords from people, and I’d just add them as naturally as possible, about…
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What Are Author Bios and How to Write Them: A Step-By-Step Guide
This week I’m taking a break from the usual writing blogs (huuuge guide on world building coming in the next couple of weeks) to talk about author bios. So, what’s an author bio? Well, it’s this little paragraph that introduces a writer and sums up who they are. Think: their work, their credentials and really, anything else that readers should know about them. Naturally, as you can imagine, this is probably one of the most important things you’ll ever write (aside from your stories). A killer author bio can make or break your book’s sale – literally. You’ll be pitching it to literary agents, publishers and your readers. It’s your…
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How to Write the Perfect Scene: A Writer’s Guide
I think it’s safe to say that all writers want to write the perfect scene; one that will blow their readers away. A scene that will stick with them long after they’ve turned the final page. Something that will become part of popular culture, something that defines your books or the characters in them. If you want to write the perfect scene, then you’re in the right place. Crafting a truly memorable scene isn’t just about throwing some characters into a setting and hoping for the best. It’s a deliberate process that involves careful planning, a deep understanding of your characters, and a keen awareness of how your scene fits…
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4 Signs You Should Delete a Scene: A Guide for Writers
Oh yes, we’re doing this. We’re talking about something I hate: when to delete a scene. Scary, right? I KNOW. I think it’s pretty obvious at this point that I’m deeply attached to my writing. I’m especially attached to some of the scenes I write late at night, when the rest of the world sleeps and my companions are my nightlight, and the occasional street cat meowing outside. I firmly believe my best work happens after the witching hour. Most of the stuff I’ve written that have also gotten published were written after midnight. However, as great as some scenes I write are, sometimes, they just don’t fit. And yeah,…
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On Writing Emotions: A Writer’s Guide to Mastering Feelings in Fiction
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this several times now, but here’s the recap anyway. As you know, I’m doing the final editing round of my manuscript these days. And one of the major edits I’ve been struggling with is mastering the art of writing emotions. I feel like, as writers, we often get lost in accurately depicting emotions, especially when it comes to emotions like pain and loss. We as people tend to process emotions very differently and our characters, being diverse, tend to have different reactions too. Stories are built on the foundation of action and reaction. When something meaningful occurs, readers want to see how characters respond. These…