Every so often, I meet a writer who struggles with writing. Really struggles, more than the usual “I have forgotten how to do this” level of struggle. They beat themselves up about their lack of skill and inadequate talent compared to everyone else they know. At least
Read more →Sooner or later, every writer seems to have trouble with plot, even writers for whom plot “comes naturally.” Part of the problem, I think, is that over the past twenty or thirty years, story structure has become thoroughly confused with plot. (I blame this largely on the
Read more →It’s that time again…open mic! Enjoy chatting, what’s up, what you’re working on, what ideas come next, what you’re avoiding, what ever…
Read more →Stories are full of endings. From the ending of a multi-book plot arc to the ending of a sentence, writers face the same sorts of questions over and over: Have I said everything I need to say? Will this flow better if it’s longer or shorter? Does
Read more →Reading involves a certain amount of mental inertia, simply because we are all humans and that’s part of how the basic brain setup works. By “mental inertia” I mean the underlying assumption that how things are, or how they have been for a while, is how things
Read more →Borrowing One of the shortcuts a writer can use for any of the Big Three story elements (plot, characters, setting/backstory) is to borrow them from somewhere else. “Somewhere else” covers a lot of ground; the caveat is that if one is going to borrow from anything that
Read more →I spent last weekend at a steampunk convention as one of their author guests (I was supposed to be there in 2020, but…). It was the first time I’ve gone to a con since 2019, and it was refreshing, in spite of my various travel glitches (I
Read more →As some of you may be aware, the last year has involved a lot of expensive home repairs for me, mostly involving having to replace major appliances (furnace, water heater, air conditioner, computer, sewer line) plus minor repairs to several others. During one of my meetings with
Read more →And it is time for another Open Mic! Chat amongst yourselves while I get life stuff done, like taxes and renewing my driver’s license…
Read more →The other day I ran across an article on writing scenes, and the very first tip in it was “stick to one viewpoint per scene.” Based on context, the writer meant “stick to one viewpoint character per scene,” because it is rare for a writer to switch
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