A step-by-step guide to help you set up your own writing Kanban board using Notion — Following on from where I left off in Part I, I want to bring you on a deep dive of the Kanban board that I’m currently using to write my debut fantasy novel, and to show you why it helps me not only to spend more of my free time…

What the Agile software development process can teach us about writing effectively and efficiently. — Lately, I’ve been reading more and more professional development and early career advice books as I ponder and consider what the next steps are in my own professional career, apart from writing. …

And here’s how you can too. — Being an indie writer, with little to no backing from a large publisher and being loaded with the responsibility of doing everything yourself (editing, marketing, sales etc.), I take pleasure from the small victories that come my way as I’m endlessly slogging through my manuscript. …

Market your personal brand and claim your virtual space as a writer — It’s 2021 and the internet is all the rage these days. Obviously, this is my attempt at seriously dry and lame humor to make the point that we now live in a digital world, all the more so since the COVID-pandemic forced us to be house hermits for most of…

Rating: 4/5 — Gripping story, engaging world, marred by muddy character development and speedy resolution — Rating: 4/5 Link: Amazon Call me a deranged individual with a blood thirsty mindset but I love assassin novels. There’s just something about the way they sneak about in the shadows, using the cover of darkness to hide their evil deeds, jumping from rooftop to rooftop as they stalk their…

Rating 5/5 — My AthaQuin ship has sailed — Rating: 5/5 Link: Amazon How apt that my first review of 2021 should be a young adult fantasy novel that’s just brimming with gory details, lustful relationships and a set up that promises at more adventures for our heroic but flawed protagonists in the future. …

Too many opinions spoil an epic story — In 2012, back when I started to really take writing as a serious craft instead of something I did for English literature classes in school, I made it my mission to read as many books as possible in the shortest amount of time. My focus was on fantasy (due to…

Telling the difference between mediocrity and best-seller material — Mediocre novels are a dime a dozen, best selling ones are like looking for the diamond in the rough. At least, this is my opinion about the state of the literary world in 2021. I don’t make these over-the-top assertions from the unfathomable heights of an umpire chair glaring down…

Tips and tricks to help yourself be heard in the increasingly saturated self-publishing book market — According to a cursory search on Google, the number of self-published books are growing exponentially year on year. In 2018 alone, there were more than 1.68 million self-published titles, up from the 1.19 million books that were self-published in 2017. Despite my failure in locating the number of self-published books…