Let’s talk about query letters for a minute. Specifically, let’s talk about the plot summary portion of a query letter. (Note: This post is going to have a bunch of spoilers for Mairelon the Magician, which I’m using as an example.) Query letters are conventionally limited to
Read more →Today is our regularly scheduled Open Mic, during which people can make announcements, wish belated holiday greetings, whinge about how their writing is going (or celebrate how well it is), complain about being stuck at home, or pretty much what you want. My announcement is that yesterday,
Read more →Sorry about the temporary outage – there was a technical glitch with the pointers (?) that it took my web people a while to figure out how to fix. This is the time of year that I generally take the weeks around Christmas and New Years off.
Read more →In last week’s comments, Niki (nct2) asked about some feedback she got from an editorial service. I’m going to summarize a bit and then respond, because I had kind of a lot to say; if you want a more complete picture, check the comments on the previous
Read more →Among the many things I wish someone had talked to me about back when I was first getting started were revisions. Not so much the how-to part – like writing, that tends to be specific to the combination of writer-plus-editor-plus-book. What I really wish I’d had were
Read more →Every so often, a new, old, or would-be writer reads a story that grabs their imagination and won’t let go. Many, many of these writers attempt to exorcise the demon by writing fanfiction, some successfully, some not. Those who are successful eventually face a choice: they can
Read more →First a couple of announcements and links. This is the last week to apply for the Odyssey Workshop class on worldbuilding that I will be teaching in January. The sign-up page is at https://odysseyworkshop.org/worldbuilding.html; there are also some posts at https://www.facebook.com/OdysseyWorkshop, https://twitter.com/OdysseyWorkshop, and https://www.instagram.com/odysseyworkshop/. And I had a lovely
Read more →Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! By an interesting coincidence, this is also Open Mic week; feel free to chat.
Read more →“Every scene must cause or lead into the next scene.” I ran across this particular bit of writing advice recently; it was followed by a couple of tips such as “cut any scene that isn’t caused by the scene immediately before it.” Wow, that means Ian M.
Read more →“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” ― W. Somerset Maugham I love that quote. I think of it whenever I’m faced with a would-be writer or critic who is waving a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of
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