Most writers get something “for free” – some part of writing that they don’t have to work at to get it to an acceptable level. Sometimes it’s something general: plot development, emotionally complex characterization, solid background, an intuitive grasp of story structure. Sometimes it’s something more narrowly
Read more →Human beings are hardwired to notice what’s wrong. Historically, it was a lot more important to spot the tiger hiding in the bushes than it was to pick out the antelope grazing down the hill, because the tiger was a more immediate threat. Missing the antelope meant
Read more →When Dorothy asked about reposting my Hat Lecture, I realized that I hadn’t done an updated version since 2011. So here is a revised version (or you can just go read the original one, if you’d rather). The original Hat Lecture focused on the fact that a
Read more →Time for another Open Mic! My news: I have a new roof! Which is great for not having water leak into my library, but not so great for pounding on the roof, also hard on the bank account. How is everyone else?
Read more →Alternate history is one of my favorite things, both for reading and writing. There’s something about taking real-life history/culture/politics/etc. and twisting it in a different direction that I find enormously appealing and interesting. The thing is, I keep running across people who define “alternate history” a lot
Read more →Once a writer knows who’s fighting, where and when they’re fighting, why they’re fighting, and all of the resources each side has, they can get to choreographing the scene itself. How much choreographing needs to be done depends, again, on the size of the fight, and the
Read more →Action scenes are the bane of many writers. Fight scenes are often considered the quintessential action scenes, but a “fight scene” can mean anything from two guys slugging each other to an epic battle between massive armies or space armadas. There are several key points for making
Read more →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…
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