Note: This post may contain spoilers, you’ve been warned. A while ago, I posted some tips on writing “tightly-plotted” fiction. This was in large part due to some reviewers using the term to describe my shaggy-dog space opera Apotheosis. However, after listening to the audiobook American Gods by Neil Gaiman Read more…
For my birthday I got a subscription to Audible.com and I’ve lately been listening to American Gods by Neil Gaiman, turns out to be a great choice for an audio book given how deeply rooted the whole narrative is in storytelling. I daresay you won’t find so many stories-within-stories this Read more…
Well, I’m getting the chance to practice what I preach. I’ve said that the most important part of being a writer is actually writing, butt in chair, day in and day out. Right now it would be very easy for me to slack off. I have one proposal and a Read more…
Gunnerkrigg Court: If you took Harry Potter, tossed it a blender with some of Girl Genius and some Neil Gaiman, you’d end up with something in the same genre as this. The story goes from cute, to creepy to heartwarming in the space of a couple of panels. And, if Read more…
For some reason, lately, I’ve been running across a lot of info on writing query letters. I’ve written myself about them, but I thought I’d pass on linkage to some of the items I’ve run across lately. Joe Moore at Kill Zone gives 8 tips on writing a strong query Read more…
TV Tropes is a massive time sink, but there are some gems in the general pop-culture amusement that I think could use some wider currency with those of us who workshop or otherwise talk about the nuts and bolts of story construction on a regular basis. Some of these are Read more…
From conversations I had at a party this weekend: 1) After you establish a character in a story, make sure you ask yourself the following two questions before every subsequent appearance of that character: Where were they since we last saw them? And what were they doing during their time Read more…
Been a while since I posted some writing-related spam. Unlike a lot of fly-by-night endeavors designed to separate a newbie writer from their money, this one is not really a scam. At least, I’m sure they’re giving you something for the money. A lame something, but something. That is perhaps Read more…
Cue REM. Dorchester Publishing looks at its bottom line and decides OMG we can’t afford to do this anymore, switches to e-publishing launching the Greek Chorus chanting “death of print, death of print.” This is premature for a number of reasons. (Not the least of which is the technical reasons Read more…