September 6, 2010 – 20:22
If you want to become a published author, the first step is to send your work out to paying markets. For novelists, that means writing query letters and proposals and a bunch of other stuff we’re not talking about today. Short story writers have it a bit easier. Finish your story, choose where you want … Read more
As a young person, you are likely to get a lot of writing advice along the lines of “practice makes perfect,” implying that you are still young, you have your whole life ahead of you, and you should focus on “practicing” your writing, stashing it all away someplace where no one other than friends and … Read more
At Alpha this year I gave a presentation on the intersection of science and writing, with handy tips for how to do science right brilliantly and wrong elegantly. A significant portion of it was conducted in enthusiastic mime, which is sadly lost with the transition to text, but I hope that with some imagination you … 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
Everyone seems to do beginnings differently. Some people start with a single line intended to somehow encompass the entire story. Some people start mysteriously, with statements you won’t understand until several paragraphs or pages later. You can start near the end, start in the middle of the action (in medias res, like Homer!), start with … Read more
Writing unobtrusive exposition — that is, getting a story’s background information across in a way that doesn’t interfere with narrative flow — presents a unique challenge if you’re writing science fiction, fantasy, or certain types of horror. Not only do you have to worry about things like characterization and foreshadowing, you also have to make … Read more
So, you’re sitting at your computer (or scribbling in your notebook), and you write the last sentence of the last paragraph on the last page of your story. If you’re like me, after you’ve written those last, glorious words, you take a moment to sit back and revel in how awesome you are. I mean … Read more
I’ve already talked about the process of critiquing, both for general comments and for line edits (You probably want to read How to Critique: Part One and How to Critique: Part Two before you read this post). There are or will be other blog entries by other people on how to write plot or … Read more
(This is part two of three in my series of blog posts on how to critique. I recommend reading part one before part two. Part one, on general comments, is the post right before this one. It’s called, conveniently, How to Critique: Part One.)
Line edits are slightly more controversial than general comments … Read more
Welcome to the first post in my three-part series on How to Critique!
Now, obviously I am not magically the Best Critiquer Ever Born in the Universe. This is a mix of the stuff that works for me when I’m critiquing and the stuff that I like critiques to do for me. Other critiques … Read more
