Daniel Rodrigues-Martin's Blog: The Ark Series

I'll be doing most of my blogging and article writing on SubStack for the foreseeable future. Come on over and say hello!

MY DEBUT NOVEL IS OUT! I've tried to get a literary agentsince 2012.I attended and later taught atwriters' conferences. I paid to pitch and was always asked to follow-up. Ilistened to experts. I was form rejected and personally rejected many times foryears and years. They wouldn't risk on me. It's a tough industry. I get it.But I decided 2 years ago that I canno longer wait on

One of my biggest issues that I have with my writing is my inability to continue my story because I do not like the way I worded a certain sentence here or felt like a certain line was too cliche there and I constantly have to keep going back over it. Tweaking, editing, obsessing, etc.

Is this something common for everyone or am I unnecessarily hindering myself? How do you deal with this in

When the actions or surroundings are important, you should add as many details as it's required. That's clear. What about trivial stuff? Examples: He sat on the floor and drank a beer. He sat on the floor, clicked open a beer can, and gulped from it. He sat cross-legged on the floor, clicked open a can of Budweiser, and took a few gulps from it. Same with mundane surroundings: He walked

When the actions or surroundings are important, you should add as many details as it's required. That's clear. What about trivial stuff? Examples: He sat on the floor and drank a beer. He sat on the floor, clicked open a beer can, and gulped from it. He sat cross-legged on the floor, clicked open a can of Budweiser, and took a few gulps from it. Same with mundane surroundings: He walked along

I am at a loss where to even start. I have finished my first draft of my novel, I am powering through my editing and preparing my second draft for critique. I am getting really close to having my novel ready to send to the chopping block of the publishing world. I just don't know where to even begin this process. I want to go the traditional route and have a publishing company publish me. This

I have read all over that the last thing you want to do is start your story with a dream. The thing is, it's not my intent to start my story out in a cheesy dream sequence. In fact, it's not even a dream. It's a premonition that is relative to the plot of the story. When I chose to start out this way, it wasn't because I thought "ah! I'm going to start my story in a cool dream just to throw

I have a scene where the MC wakes up in her boyfriend's bed. She talks with him for a while then makes an excuse to leave. At some point, I though, "Hm, they didn't even mentioned or ate breakfast." Note: the time is around eight a.m.
In another scene, they meet for a date. In the first draft, they go to a restaurant, but then I changed the location to a library. At some point, I thought, "

So I'm working on a book about grim reapers and I just discovered its almost exactly like the plot of "dead like me"....I'm so mad. Ive never even seen this show before. How can I fix it without redoing all my work?



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Dear Writer,


Audre Lorde said, "There are no new ideas, there are only new ways of making them felt." She is getting at the heart of your question.


This