Monthly Archives: August 2010

Say That Again, Would You?

August 29, 2010 – 10:12 am

Dialog is one of the bedrock necessities in about 99% of all fiction. Plays and screenplays are almost nothing but dialog, and it’s not unusual to see whole scenes or entire short stories that are told entirely in dialog (sometimes, without even speech tags to let the reader know who’s talking). It’s something that seems [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , | Comments (5)

Before the Beginning

August 25, 2010 – 10:56 am

Probably the most often-asked question writers get is “Where do you get your ideas?” Very few people ever ask “What do you do with your ideas once you have them?” though that seems to me to be the logical next step. It seems a good many people don’t realize that there is a lot of [...]

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Time and again

August 22, 2010 – 3:58 pm

“I don’t have time to write” is one of the most common writers’ complaints, both from people who haven’t published yet and from seasoned pros. The statement means different things to different people, but the most common meaning is “There are a lot of other things in my life that are more important to me [...]

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Whose Turn Is It? (Mailbag #4)

August 18, 2010 – 7:32 am

From the mailbag:: I know some people who feel quite strongly about keeping to the main character’s POV except when it’s absolutely necessary to go to someone else, but I’ve also seen that rule (like so many others!)broken successfully. It can be so useful to show someone else reacting to the MC. Any guidelines on [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Mailbag, Writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

First Final

August 16, 2010 – 8:27 am

Every saga has a beginning, and this one begins four weeks ago, when my editor sent me a three-page, single-spaced revisions e-mail and a copy of the ms. for what is now Across the Great Barrier that was full of comment balloons. It didn’t arrive. We didn’t realize this for a week, because I was being restrained and [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in General, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (7)

Title Wars, etc.

August 4, 2010 – 6:30 am

So the revisions request for Book 2 of the Frontier Magic trilogy have come in, and I’m head down for the next week and a half. After much emailing, the consensus is that, among many other things, it needs a title change. The editors felt that Circuit Magician was a good title…for a different book. [...]

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Complicated Webs

August 1, 2010 – 7:45 pm

Big, fat, complex, multiple-viewpoint novels have been popular for quite a while, and they have a whole set of problems all their own. Once of those problems is pacing. The temptation is always to take advantage of a slow moment in the main plot to advance a subplot, and it’s frequently a good idea in [...]

By pcwrede | Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (4)