When to Trunk a Story or Novel?
by Tobias S. Buckell
Today, while waiting for my new office chair to be delivered, I asked followers at Twitter to send me some questions. In response, someone tweeted: “When to trunk and when to keep rewriting?”
Archive for the ‘The Craft of Writing’ Category
Panlexicon vs. Visual Thesaurus – Who Will Win?
by Luna Lindsey
Panlexicon vs. Visual Thesaurus: No, it’s not an epic city-smashing battle of giant robots versus dinosaurs. It’s a contest between online thesauri. When you need that perfect word, where should you turn?
Taking the Long View
Come the beginning of my pro career, in the early Eighties, women were discouraged from writing science fiction. (Hard, muscular SF was for boys.) Fantasy was deemed more appropriate, being so much softer and “easier,” or so one was told, and frankly it sold better. And here I had this monster of a thing that could best be called science fantasy—mages with space ships. And empire, of course. Must have empire.
Odyssey Online Writing Classes and Webinar
Odyssey’s online classes are unique among writing programs. Sessions are held live through Web conferencing software, so students can have an active learning process, asking questions and participating in discussions.
Guest Post–Things I learned: On Artistry and Art Life
by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz
To be able to practice our art in a space and time when we are free from thinking of anything else but that practice is a vital and precious good.
Humor as a Plot Adhesive
As fiction writers, we talk a lot about humor. We talk about what’s funny. We talk about what isn’t. We talk about appropriate moments for humor, the types of audience best suited to it, and the consequences of attempted humor gone horribly wrong.
Seven Days on Skokholm
by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley
If I had a week with nothing to do, I would write amazing words. I would write a book. I would write a million words and then dream the story while I slept under the stars and then I would write another million words and the faeries would come out and dance around me and I would make novels like the miller’s daughter spinning gold out of straw.
That Paper Dragon
by Jaym Gates and Joie Brown
Last week we discussed some of the basics we use to stay organized, but this week we’re delving into some of the grittier details—client information, multiple deadlines, business cards.
The Organizational Beast
by Jaym Gates and Joie Brown
The life of a freelancer isn’t all champagne and breakfast in bed. To make a living out of the bits and pieces of available contracting work requires a lot of juggling, steady nerves, and an organizational savvy that’s definitely bordering on the supernatural.
In Praise of Rejectomancy
by Kate Heartfield In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was a dabbler in short fiction. I wrote about one story each year. I’d send that story out once, maybe twice if I felt cocky, and then I’d trunk it, figuring that a rejection or two meant a story was no good. Somehow, despite this method […]
