Monthly Archives: June 2010

Default values

June 30, 2010 – 7:40 am

Nearly every writer has what I call a “default setting” for many or most of the basic pieces of writing. They tend to automatically write in first person, or third, or multiple viewpoint. When they’re thinking up stories or developing ideas, they gravitate toward the action/adventure plot, or toward one focusing on relationships, or toward [...]

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Revising long after part 4

June 27, 2010 – 6:27 am

 This is the last part of Chapter 1 of Shadow Magic, as revised ten years later for the omnibus Shadows Over Lyra. Strikethroughs are the deletions from the original; plain text is the original that was kept; bold are additions. Italics are my comments, which are few on this part.  Bracor led them inside and [...]

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Revising long after part 3

June 26, 2010 – 9:40 am

This is the third part of Chapter 1 of Shadow Magic, as revised ten years later for Shadows Over Lyra, and the second of the posts that was supposed to come up while I was away, but didn’t because I am apparently incapable of properly using the scheduler. The final part will go up tomorrow. Plain text [...]

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Revising long after, part 2

June 26, 2010 – 8:39 am

This is the next part of Chapter 1 of Shadow Magic, as revised ten years later for Shadows Over Lyra. Plain text is the original version; strikethrough is what I deleted; boldface is what I added. Italics are my comments on why I did what I did. “I’ll mind,” Maurin muttered, too low for Har [...]

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Well, that’s annoying

June 25, 2010 – 10:38 pm

Once again, the auto-posting has failed me. Coming up next: all the posts that didn’t while I was out of town with no internet access. I’ll put the rest of the chapter up in two-day intervals, starting tomorrow morning (Saturday), so people have at least a little time to digest them. Thanks for your patience.

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Revising long after, part 1

June 16, 2010 – 6:35 am

Last week, I suggested that people find books that have been reedited by their authors for a years-later reprint, and compare before-and-after versions. To show you what I mean, I’m going to post the first chapter of my first novel, Shadow Magic, which came out in 1982 and which I revised ten years later for an omnibus edition. It’s going [...]

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Twitchy, twitchy

June 13, 2010 – 5:08 pm

Barely over a week ago, I turned in the first draft of Circuit Rider, after a major death-march push to get the thing done somewhere within shouting distance of deadline. The plan was to spend a couple of weeks taking care of everything that got put off to finish the book (laundry, dishes, yardwork, finances), [...]

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Reading like a writer

June 9, 2010 – 8:07 am

Most people just read books. That is, they absorb the information, or enjoy the plot and characters, without thinking too much about how and why they work. It’s a lot like watching a play, or a magic show. It’s supposed to be relaxing, so sit back and enjoy. Reading like a writer is more like [...]

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Recognizing “Good Writing”

June 6, 2010 – 8:00 am

A bit ago, I got asked to do my standard rant on this. I put it off ’til the book was done, but it’s done now. So here’s the short form: Read a story. Does it work? Yes? Then it’s good. The problem with the term “good writing” is that it assumes there is an [...]

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Finish line…first draft

June 4, 2010 – 12:07 pm

Finished up the last chapter of Circuit Magician yesterday around noon; spent the rest of the afternoon doing final clean-up of assorted things that had been tagged to fix but somehow hadn’t gotten fixed yet, and sent it off. This morning, I had notes from my editor and agent saying they received it, so the [...]

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