Once again I put out a call for blog post suggestions, and Charles A. Tan had a few. (We can always count on Charles.) There were some great ones there, including “motivating yourself to write.” I read through them all. Then I checked my Direct Messages and played with the cat. So yeah, I thought about […]
Category > Writing
Trunk or Submit
Writers are a neurotic bunch, and like many I have a trunk where I lock my most embarrassing failures lest they break free and expose me for a fraud. On top of that chest of despair rest the manuscripts that aren’t quite so bad. Some of them, in fact, are kind of decent but they’re […]
Novel Revisions: Sharing the Pain
I’m no expert on producing novels, but I’m finding ways to survive it, including sharing my pain as therapy for myself, as well as hoping it will help ease the pain for others. This is only the second novel I’ve worked on, but I’ve made it all the way to a fifth draft. I did […]
Using Music to Find Your Story’s Voice
As comfortable as I am with the other elements of a story, voice is mysterious and magical to me (but Christie says that a strong voice is one of three things found in great stories). It’s not something I can pull out of my writer’s toolbox–I feel like it’s something I have to discover when […]
Lessons From the Slush Pile: Your Cover Letter and You
The following is a slightly modified repost from my personal blog, http://inkhaven.net. Submitting to short fiction markets can be very scary for newcomers, and there is a whole lot of confusing advice out there. I’m here to help. First, though: you guys with the long lists of publications, who have your editors on your Christmas […]
Writer’s Toolkit: Tarot Cards
This post started a couple weeks ago when I twittered that I was pulling tarot cards for a flash fiction story I was working on. It sparked a discussion and several people wanted to know more how about how I was using tarot cards in my writing process. The most interesting characters are flawed. They […]
OMG, did you check out her encyclopedia?!
My first novel attempt was just a trainwreck, like most of them are. I changed so many things that I finally gave up and never finished. The second one was marginally better. The third one? Oh, I tracked that thing to death. I tracked details so well I burned out on details, and decided to […]
Guest Post by Susan Forest: Inspirational vs. Mechanical Writing
Today’s guest post is by Susan Forest, editor and award nominated science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. Thank you, Susan!  Ever write in “flow?” Oh, to be transported to that other world, to live there, to have the words pour unconsciously onto the page, coming from some deep, hidden well of the soul. That is a […]
Creationism vs. Evolution as Metaphors for Writing
Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. Â – Samuel Beckett There are all kinds of cultural narratives that address our place as tiny creatures in this vast and cold universe. One popular story says–and I’m reaching waaay back to my days as a Mormon missionary here–that we humans are the […]
Day Jobbery: Who wants to work forever?
When I was eighteen, I traveled north to Milwaukee and attended my first GenCon in the mid 1990’s with some friends from college. It was the first time I’d experienced anything of the sort. I’d been reading Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance stuff for ages, and idolized Margaret Weis & Tracey Hickman; I’d known I wanted […]
