Writing related posts and advice.
Not a note of caution before we begin: everyone has a different process, and what works for me, may not work for you. In fact, what works for me sometimes doesn’t work for me.
But I always think it’s fun to look at other people’s writing processes. So, here is mine. Read More
Fantasy writer Patricia C Wrede on how to train your first readers to give you the type of feedback that’s valuable to you. Really eye-opening if you haven’t thought about it before. Read More
I thought this might be a fun thing to do, to let you see exactly the process I use to write my blog.
Right now I’m walking outside, it’s about 10 degrees Celsius. There are nice weather, a little bit wet since it’s in the fall.
And I’m dictating this into my Voyager into my Plantronics Voyager 3200 headset.
Did you notice what just happened there? I said Voyager twice, because I missed a word. I’m not going to correct this in editing. All I’m going to do is clean up the punctuation and any spelling errors.
Everything else remains. So your
Everything else remains. So what you see here is the exact transcript of the exact words that I use. Read More
I’m working on a project right now. It’s a spaghetti western in space with magic, and I’ve come to a point where I have no idea where the project should be going.
On one hand, it could end.
There is enough for a cataclysmic showdown with everybody getting gunned down by the hero. That will make it rather short and I like the characters and setting. I’m not quite ready to leave them just yet. There is room for tidying up unfinished business.
But I have no idea how I’m going to do that. I’m pantsing it, writing in to the dark. I don’t know the world, I don’t know the hero, the opposition, the side characters. I’m inventing everything as I write. Read More
A massive ebook in blog post format, taking into account everything from the first insight that you want to write, up to publishing and contracts.
I don’t use the same method of writing as Hugh does, but his posts are still crammed with nuggets of wisdom that I found worthwhile. And if you’re more in line with his process, you’re bound to find illumination within.
I’d pay for this if it was published as a book. Now you get it for free. Read More
So I’m writing along and the story is flowing nicely. And then the characters decided to sit down and drink a cup of tea and chat about the weather, how their favorite sports team has lost the intergalactic space series, and how their shoes hurt, and…
And the story just grinds into a horrible, crashing halt.
It happens. Read More
Cassie Alexander writing on Jay Lake’s “Tub of Improvement.” This is the best explanation to the “hey, I sold 1/2/3 stories and now nothing for months/years/forever, what gives?”-problem I’ve ever read. Read More
I lost 30,000 words today. Almost.
I didn’t actually lose them. It was more like I beat them to death with a blunt hammer and then had to cut them away from my conscience.
It started out with a pretty great idea. Kids in an abandoned space junkyard trying to get to the stars. And it played along pretty nicely. I liked the setting. I liked the characters.
And then, around the 20,000 word mark, I realized the characters are whiny brats who won’t start acting and just keep on reacting as little as they can. The story called for outcasts with skills. And here we had high school juves with issues.
Now, outcasts works for high school juves, but issues don’t. Outcasts with issues that just boring. It’s Batman sitting on a roof edge contemplating his miserable life while Crime Happens. Elsewhere.
That doesn’t work in an adventure story. Read More
Let’s say you have an idea for a setting, or an event, or a new type of technology, but you can’t transform it into a plot. There’s simply no action there, no conflict. All you’ve got is a “what if…”
How about you take one of those what ifs and ask “who would be the most hurt by this?” I.e.:
“What if all people could suddenly fly? Who would be the most hurt by this?”
Airlines. Airline pilots. Airline maintenance workers. What if it’s a airplane mechanic who really loves his planes, but now they’re all worthless and nobody wants them? “The Airplane Whisperer, coming soon to a theater near you…”
Second point would be to see how badly you can make the person hurt. Read More
Far-Fetched Fables has podcasted my story “Bed of the Crimson King”, first published in Grimdark Magazine.
You can listen to it here: Far-Fetched Fables #141 – Bed of the Crimson