by Dr. Debra Doyle The temptation, in arguments involving genre fiction and literary taste, is to give up and say, “Okay, I’m a philistine, not to mention an unlettered slob. I like the books anyway” — but dammit, I’m not an unlettered slob, I’m a professional writer with an earned doctorate in English literature, and […]
by B.W. Clough Copyright © 1995 B. W. Clough. First published in the Fall 1995 issue of the Bulletin. A writer needs many gifts to succeed. One that I fatally lack is the gift of titling. I can write a good book or story, but choosing an appropriate, zingy, marketable title for it is often […]
James Van Pelt writes on perseverance as a writer.
An article by James Patrick Kelly on writing stronger characters.
An essay by James Patrick Kelly on the writing of his short story ‘Monsters’.
Writerisms describes overused and misused language. In more direct words: find ’em, root ’em out, and look at your prose without the underbrush.
Written by Amy Sterling Casil When we criticise work, we are commenting for the purposes of publishability, and our goal is to help authors to become publishable and published writers. For prose pieces, the following issues are critically important: Plot – does the action make sense? Is what is written moving the story forward? Sometimes, […]
An essay by science fiction writer Poul Anderson on the importance of research, or at least of plain common sense and logical thought, in writing heroic fantasy.
Written by Roger MacBride Allen Because I have written three STAR WARS novels, and three novels set in Isaac Asimov’s Robots-Foundation universe, I get a lot of standard-mail and e-mail letters from readers who want to know: “How can I get to write that sort of book myself?” It’s not much fun to give the […]
They are the last survivors of the settlers of the moon Sturnus, forty children rescued by the benevolent people of the planet Janus. Except Bear is starting to remember, and what he remembers is nothing like what he and the others have been told.
