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 »
General Writing
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 »
Conflict
Today's post is about two different kinds of conflict. One is the conflict between a writers goals and the realities of life (calling back to last weeks post), and the other is on conflict in your story. First, on goals. Like I said last week, goals are awesome. Set them. Small ones are good until you know you can meet them. I thought 500 words a day was great. I'm still going to try to hold to it, even though Ive failed miserable this last week *grin* Inevitably, life is going to ... Read more »
500 Words a Day – Goals and Discipline
So, of those of us who have tried to write a novel, who has reached a point where you are having problems finding the motivation to go on? Yes, you in the back. You in the front. You in the second row, with your hand down? You're lying. It can be hard to keep writing. It tends to come in dribs and drabs, a spurt of a few thousand words here, a good week there. Most of my completed books were written in four or five spurts of really good inspiration. There are writers, who will remain ... Read more »