I don't get asked very often where my ideas come from - but that's probably mostly because I don't talk much about my writing. It is one of those stereotypical questions, however, and lacking in other ideas this week I will speak to it a little bit. I am an informationophile - I love to learn. I absorb information, sights, sounds, stories and thoughts like a sponge, and it all percolates around my brain until it spits out something new shiny and (hopefully) unique. Small things, big ... Read more »
General Writing
Identifying Themes
So I'm sure everyone reading this has had an English class where they were instructed to find the themes in some grand piece of literature. I'm also sure most of us rolled our eyes and went about BSing the paper as best as we could. Outside of actual literature writers, most authors aren't actually trying to put themes in their books. I'm what is disparagingly referred to as a 'genre writer' - I write SF and Fantasy, exclusively. I don't put any deep themes in my work. Intentionally. ... Read more »
The 25,000 word death zone
I have been writing for most of my life - all of my adult life and some before that. As I've said earlier, I've finished five novels. I have two I regard as active works in progress. But a quick and dirty survey of my folders found me nine major projects, six of which were over 10,000 words. Average length of my unfinished non active projects was 15,000 words, but only one is over 25,000 words. This is about what I was expecting. 25,000 words seems to be a mental 'switchover' point. ... Read more »
Back – and forth. Publishing and why we write.
Well, the last few weeks have been different. Finished up with the convention I was at, finished moving, and then some personal issues cropped up. Suffice to say, I haven't been writing much, but I promised a weekly post and I've been slacking! So, this week we're talking about getting published. Let's be clear: I have not yet been. I have a good agent, so it is probably reasonable to assume that at some point in the distant future, I will be. However, this is not a fast or easy ... Read more »
Surroundings and description
When I first started writing, I wrote in a way one of my editors (one of my first year university english teachers) described as 'writing like an engineer.' I described actions, persons, thoughts and conversations, but I wrote very tersely and often missed vital description. It is a habit I have tried to break myself of, while also being careful to avoid the pitfall of too much description. Little things around your characters and events are important. What time of day is it? What time ... Read more »
Consequence of Conflict – Combat
Last week, I wrote on conflict, and how its necessary to drive a story. Now, you can write amazing stories where conflict is resolved in the courtroom, in conversations and arguments, or even in the operating room. Sadly, I am not a lawyer, I'm a merely decent debator and I can write what I know about surgery on the back of a postage stamp. In most stories, however, especially in speculative and adventure fiction, many of not most conflicts are going to come down to one method of ... Read more »