® Ben Wilson Writes

AAR

Amazon

  • Amazon Defines Novel Length

    Amazon customers represent a market force we as authors should listen to. And they are talking about the modern length of a novel.

Audible

  • Years of Audible, 2017-19

    What have I been listening to over in the 3 years since I last shared my audiobook list?

  • A Year of Audible, 2016

    Closing out a third year of Audible listening, my year was focused on history.

  • A Year of Audible, 2015

    With another year in the bag, I wanted to share some of my Audible listening for 2015.

  • A Year of Audible, 2014

    I'd like to share what I've learned from a year of using Audible.

Authoring Business

  • Cleaning my Closet

    As I integrate my writing and its supporting business in GitHub, I am dumping what is in my head into the platform.

Bad Advice

  • How to Beat Stress

    This goes to RSS Feed & Frontpage

  • A Decade of Decadent Shaving

    I've used a safety razor for a decade, with some pleasant results.

  • Dictate Your Book

    A nickle's worth of free advice on how to dictate your book using Dragon NaturallySpeaking or Dragon Dictate.

  • Quiet Rituals of a Negligibly Successful Writer

    After recently reading an article of rituals of successful people, I wanted to share some thoughts on how those rituals apply to me.

Beetle

  • Memories of a VW Bug Roadtrip

    I always wanted my first car to be a Bug. I eventually owned two. This is a story of one road trip.

Brin

Christmas

Dragon NaturallySpeaking

  • Dictate Your Book

    A nickle's worth of free advice on how to dictate your book using Dragon NaturallySpeaking or Dragon Dictate.

  • Here Be Dragons, Dictating

    With this being National Disability Awareness Month, I wanted to chat about how I used Dragon with a plot problem.

Forbearance

  • Murder on Gunio Prime

    On the live-fire training planet of Gunio, Keius Minjen witnesses the murder of his friend. Prelude to the Forebearance Series.

GitHub as an Author

  • Cleaning my Closet

    As I integrate my writing and its supporting business in GitHub, I am dumping what is in my head into the platform.

  • Writing on Github: Organizing the Book

    GitHub best practices work perfectly for organizing a novel.

  • Introducing Korektu

    Korektu helps #self-published #authors with howto get reader feedback into private #GitHub repo issues.

  • Writing on Github: Organizing the Series

    As a developer, I find using Github as a writer soothing. Here are a few tips I've picked up.

  • Unsharpening the Axe

    Ben shares his semi-reluctant return to his Bookmaker toolchain now called 'Verku'

  • Automating Scrivener: Wordcount Log

    While shifting to Scrivener, I share how I automatically update my word count log out of Scrivener.

  • GitHub to Work with Your Beta Readers

    One advantage of using GitHub is the ability to collaborate with your beta readers.

  • Automating Scrivener: GitHub Commit

    Authors have a chance to automatically archive their Scrivener files using GitHub with this simple script.

Goals

  • Silence is for the Lambs

    Silence is not golden, but it is of the lambs. With a couple years of relative silence, I'm in motion again.

Habits

  • Cleaning my Closet

    As I integrate my writing and its supporting business in GitHub, I am dumping what is in my head into the platform.

  • Quiet Rituals of a Negligibly Successful Writer

    After recently reading an article of rituals of successful people, I wanted to share some thoughts on how those rituals apply to me.

Holiday

Humor

  • Finding Inspiration

    How choosey should you be when picking a role-model?

  • The Truth About the Elf on the Shelf

    Forget what you thought you knew about Santa Claus. He's real.

  • Must Barney Die? A Legal Opinion

    Have you ever had a time when you wanted to just snap from the stress? I have. And I did. What I did next was fun.

  • Truth About Santa Claus

    Forget what you thought you knew about Santa Claus. He's real.

  • 39 Cents a Day

    Thirty-nine cents is all it takes to meet the basic needs of these poor villagers.

Jekyll

  • Introducing Korektu

    Korektu helps #self-published #authors with howto get reader feedback into private #GitHub repo issues.

LaTeX

  • Unsharpening the Axe

    Ben shares his semi-reluctant return to his Bookmaker toolchain now called 'Verku'

Life Hacks

Listening Experience

  • Years of Audible, 2017-19

    What have I been listening to over in the 3 years since I last shared my audiobook list?

  • A Year of Audible, 2016

    Closing out a third year of Audible listening, my year was focused on history.

  • A Year of Audible, 2015

    With another year in the bag, I wanted to share some of my Audible listening for 2015.

  • A Year of Audible, 2014

    I'd like to share what I've learned from a year of using Audible.

Markdown

  • Unsharpening the Axe

    Ben shares his semi-reluctant return to his Bookmaker toolchain now called 'Verku'

NaNoWriMo

National Disability Awareness Month

  • Here Be Dragons, Dictating

    With this being National Disability Awareness Month, I wanted to chat about how I used Dragon with a plot problem.

Naughty

  • Truth About Santa Claus

    Forget what you thought you knew about Santa Claus. He's real.

Ombrio

  • Building a Brave New World

    I'd like to share with you a curious approach to world-building geography.

Plot Analysis

  • Skyfall Plot Analysis

    Ben Wilson shows how understanding story structure helps enjoy a movie like Skyfall that much more.

  • It's Not Really Three Acts

    Ben Wilson describes why it's a four-act structure.

Postal Marines Series

  • Jonaldy Ammonett

    As I am editing Luctation, I wanted to chat a bit about the main character: Jonaldy Ammonett. He starts lowly and insecure, but we see eventually that he rises to be a real power in and of himself.

  • The Maltuŝeblon Directive

    In Bellicose you meet Admiral Bence, an individual who seems completely out of his element. That's because he is not an admiral, but a member of the Maltuŝeblon.

  • Inspiration for the Postal Marines

    It's time to share some backstory on how Danel Bophendze was able to join the Postal Marines at sixteen.

  • Finished Bellicose Draft

    I finished the Bellicose revision. Moving forward.

  • Work in Progress: Bellicose

    Ben Wilson is glad that Bellicose is in pre-production.

  • When Friends Take a Turn for the Worse

    Ben Wilson describes a shady deal.

  • A Little About the Core Series

    Not that anybody's reading at this point, but I wanted to give a bit of news about progress in writing the novel Scintilla.

  • After Action Review on Scintilla's First Draft

    Ben Wilson offers his retrospective on writing and publishing his first finished novel--Scintilla.

Publishing

Resiliency

Retrospective

  • Silence is for the Lambs

    Silence is not golden, but it is of the lambs. With a couple years of relative silence, I'm in motion again.

  • Years of Audible, 2017-19

    What have I been listening to over in the 3 years since I last shared my audiobook list?

  • A Year of Audible, 2016

    Closing out a third year of Audible listening, my year was focused on history.

  • A Year of Audible, 2015

    With another year in the bag, I wanted to share some of my Audible listening for 2015.

  • Spock!

    There's a lot of mourning on the Internet over the loss of Nimoy. I wanted to add my thanks.

  • A Year of Audible, 2014

    I'd like to share what I've learned from a year of using Audible.

Review

  • Analyzing Spectre

    As we saw in Skyfall, in Spectre we see sophisticated storytelling with a clear moral theme.

  • Review: Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction

    After reading Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction, I thought it was worth a review.

  • Skyfall Plot Analysis

    Ben Wilson shows how understanding story structure helps enjoy a movie like Skyfall that much more.

Scrivener

  • Unsharpening the Axe

    Ben shares his semi-reluctant return to his Bookmaker toolchain now called 'Verku'

  • Automating Scrivener: Wordcount Log

    While shifting to Scrivener, I share how I automatically update my word count log out of Scrivener.

  • GitHub to Work with Your Beta Readers

    One advantage of using GitHub is the ability to collaborate with your beta readers.

  • Automating Scrivener: GitHub Commit

    Authors have a chance to automatically archive their Scrivener files using GitHub with this simple script.

  • Going Back to Scrivener

    Ben, the eternal tool geek, is turning back toward Scrivener for novel writing. Could this be the last change?

Shared World

  • A Little Worldbuilding

    While trying to work back into the Postal Marine series, Ben takes a turn at worldbuilding.

  • Building a Brave New World

    I'd like to share with you a curious approach to world-building geography.

Technique

Toolchain

  • A Little Worldbuilding

    While trying to work back into the Postal Marine series, Ben takes a turn at worldbuilding.

  • Unsharpening the Axe

    Ben shares his semi-reluctant return to his Bookmaker toolchain now called 'Verku'

  • Going Back to Scrivener

    Ben, the eternal tool geek, is turning back toward Scrivener for novel writing. Could this be the last change?

  • Quiet Rituals of a Negligibly Successful Writer

    After recently reading an article of rituals of successful people, I wanted to share some thoughts on how those rituals apply to me.

  • Here Be Dragons, Dictating

    With this being National Disability Awareness Month, I wanted to chat about how I used Dragon with a plot problem.

  • My Toolchain Using Bookmaker

    Ben Wilson, author, discusses how he writes, edits and publishes a novel.

Truth

Website

  • Strange Things Afoot

    Given a choice between writing and updating the webiste, the website won.

Worldbuilding

  • A Little Worldbuilding

    While trying to work back into the Postal Marine series, Ben takes a turn at worldbuilding.

Writing

  • Cleaning my Closet

    As I integrate my writing and its supporting business in GitHub, I am dumping what is in my head into the platform.

  • A Little Worldbuilding

    While trying to work back into the Postal Marine series, Ben takes a turn at worldbuilding.

  • Heroes for More than One Season

    Ben Wilson explains why authors should plan to write series, and suggests that Snowflake Method will help.

  • When Friends Take a Turn for the Worse

    Ben Wilson describes a shady deal.

Writing Progress

  • Silence is for the Lambs

    Silence is not golden, but it is of the lambs. With a couple years of relative silence, I'm in motion again.

  • Jonaldy Ammonett

    As I am editing Luctation, I wanted to chat a bit about the main character: Jonaldy Ammonett. He starts lowly and insecure, but we see eventually that he rises to be a real power in and of himself.

  • Breaking the Silence

    After a few hard months, I'm back in business.

  • Finished Bellicose Draft

    I finished the Bellicose revision. Moving forward.

  • Work in Progress: Bellicose

    Ben Wilson is glad that Bellicose is in pre-production.

goals

  • Machines Like Us

    Computers will soon become more intelligent than us. Some of the best brains in Silicon Valley are now trying to work out what happens next.

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