One of the tough parts about writing short stories, especially if you’re used to reading novels or series instead, is that short stories stop. How does one accomplish this feat? You need an ending. More than that, you need a good ending.
The ending, like every other part of a story, does several things … Read more
It’s (usually) easy to tell if a story is Genre, which is within-our-genre-speak for Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Sometimes Horror. Does it have dragons? Does it have ray guns? Which animals talk, and why?
Then you have to explain that yes, you write fantasy, but– no, not like Tolkien, no, not like Harry Potter … Read more
You wrote the story. You edited the story. You scrapped it. You rewrote it. You edited the story again. You asked friends for input, then ignored them. You continued editing. You cut, you cut, you cut. You asked friends for input and listened to them. You put it into proper manuscript format. You sent it … Read more
The Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing just announced its winner, runners-up, and honorable mentions.
Like last year, Alphans have made a very strong showing. How strong? Eight Alphans were honored. The full list, taken from the Dell Award Facebook page, follows. Alphans are listed in bold … Read more
There is a third Rule of Writing, but it’s more a Rule of Editing: be short.
This is more than brevity being the soul of wit. Short is better than long most of the time. Paper magazines can’t publish three novellas in a row, but they can sometimes squidge things around and fit in … Read more
Ann Cecil, an amazing woman and staff at all but the most recent Alpha, died this morning. She will be very much missed.
Ann was active in fandom and helped found PARSEC and Confluence. More than that, she committed part of each year to helping pass on her knowledge of science fiction and fantasy … Read more
So I have two Rules of Writing (so far). Be specific, be intentional.
Time to unpack that second one. I’ve broken it into several categories.
Be intentional: Everyone plays favorites.
Everyone has favorite characters and types. For a long time, almost everything I wrote involved a tall, skinny, white, redheaded female outcast. I … Read more
Let’s talk about herbs.
No, let’s talk about some herbs. Not in the basil-mint-dill sense, no. When the woodsman cooks a rabbit, he uses ‘some savory herb’. When your character has a cough, the healer she visits lives in a cottage festooned with ‘some healing herbs’ and gives her ‘some herb’ to help her … Read more
