Welcome to Crystal Crawford's official author blog!

Happy New Year, everyone! This rollover to a new year has been a little unusual for my family, because we are also in the middle of packing up for a big move. Lord willing, we move to Tallahassee this weekend to start a new season of our lives (and a new adventure). Amid all the moving chaos, I'm not quite feeling the usual, peaceful "fresh slate" of the new year -- but I am still so very grateful for everything that 2023 brought, and looking forward to what's to come in 2024

Right now as I'm writing this, it's the last day of September 2023... which means it's about to be Preptober! For those who aren't as familiar with NaNoWriMo (a write-a-whole-novel-in-a-month event which takes place in November), many writers use October as their prep month to get everything planned, prepared, and ready for their November writing sprints. 50,000 words (minimum!) in a month is no joke--and the planning definitely helps! But you don't have to be doing NaNoWriMo

So, I'd seen a few other of my author friends do this, and it seemed like a good way to take stock of what I'd accomplished this year, writing-wise, so... I thought I'd just make a brief post with a run-down of my word counts and various writing achievements for 2021! Novels & Novellas 86,548 words of Macchiatos, Faerie Princes, and Other Things That Happen at Midnight -- Book 1 completed! 26,213 words toward the first draft of Fate Rising 2,611 words toward the first draft o

I now have a Discord server for connecting with readers and fellow writers!

I'm merging my blogs! Find out how to stay up to date.

Don’t have fancier software, but have Microsoft Word? Learn how to make the most of it for your writing process.

A good self-edit can make a huge difference in your writing, but only if you know how to do it well. Here are 7 tips to help you self-edit..

Writing is solitary, but I have learned how much stronger and better, my writing can be when I have the benefit of a writing community.

While my writing is no longer on Wattpad, I still stand by this post--Wattpad really did make me a better writer.

Welcome to the 9th and final post in my "Free Writing Software Review" series!

Welcome to Part 7 of my "Free Writing Software Review" series!

Welcome to Part 6 of my "Free Writing Software Review" series!

Welcome to Part 5 of my "Free Writing Software Review" series!

Welcome to Part 4 of my “Free Writing Software Review” Series!

Welcome to Part 3 of my “Free Writing Software Review” series!

Welcome to Part 2 of my “Free Writing Software Review” Series!

Welcome to Part 1 of my “Free Writing Software Review” Series. This series provides in-depth reviews of free writing programs available fo

I spent hours testing out multiple writing programs, mostly free, and comparing their features, then turned the data into a handy chart!

My honest review of Scrivener.

A comparison of the benefits of going fingers-to-keyboard versus those of the traditional pencil-to-page method.