Category > Basics

Sometimes We Need a Kick in the Butt

As new writers, the number one piece of advice we hear is to get your butt in chair and keep it there. Great advice, but what if we get our butt in the chair, but the words don’t want to come? There’s nothing more frustrating than fighting to get the words down. If you’re like […]

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Why Write Short Stories?

At the 2011 World Horror Convention, I went to a panel called Why We Write Short Stories. When people used to talk about being a short form or long form writer, I had no idea where I fell into those categories or if I had a preference or the skills for one or the other. […]

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Write-Brain Exercises

I spent the last two weeks with sixteen other writers under the tutelage of Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress at the Taos Toolbox workshop. I probably should’ve planned ahead to have my Inkpunks post ready for today before I left. Alas, I did not have that foresight. At the moment I’m a little (make […]

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Add a little … character

I bet if you asked people to tell what their favorite books are and why they enjoy them, most people would mention something about loving the characters. For example, I love the Harry Potter books because I adore Snape. When I was waiting impatiently for the seventh Harry Potter novel, I wasn’t wondering what nefarious […]

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Flash Fiction Friday: Pacing

The best insight comes when you least expect it. I was in Toronto a couple weekends ago, at Ad Astra. I sat in a room on Sunday afternoon with twenty other writers, staring at a piece of flash fiction I wrote for their annual writing contest. I hadn’t won, and while I waited to talk […]

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To Follow the “Rules” or Not: That is the Question

Rules. Advice. Words of wisdom. We writers are bombarded with information on how to write better, how to make our work more saleable, how to increase our daily word count etc. There are books on the subject. Blogs (including this one, which I hope you all find helpful ~winsome smile~). Whole conventions, with scores of […]

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Focus and the Distracted Writer

I just spent the last month revising two very different short stories, both aimed at markets with looming deadlines. Coming off the post-holiday distractions, I was confident that neither story would take much work (I was wrong) and a whole month seemed like plenty of time to get my work done (I was right, but […]

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Control the spice of your universe

  Let’s talk about sandworms. Whoah. Those are some pretty amazing monsters. They grow to the size of mountains; they live in an inhospitable desert where barely anything else can survive; they hunt via vibrations; they secrete mind- and body-altering drugs that change the shape of an entire universe. Whoah. Nice monster, Frank Herbert! There’s […]

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Know your markets

I occasionally overhear part of a conversation where someone mentions Duotrope and the other person admits that they’d never heard of it before before. What? I think to myself, How can you not know the holy grail of market research known as Duotrope? Then I remember that all knowledge is subjective and that, one day, […]

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Naming Your Characters

Tales have often told of the great power behind our names and that giving someone your name can allow them mastery over you. J.K. Rowling’s villain is only referred to as You-Know-Who or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, for fear the mere mention of his name, Voldemort, would bring his wrath. It’s no wonder then, as writer’s we often […]

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