Guest Post: Inspiration + Aspiration
by Leo Babauta
I deal every day with questions about how to stay motivated, how to stay on track, how to be excited about what I’m doing, how to stay grounded and balanced. Do you face these same issues?
Archive for the ‘Advice for New Writers’ Category
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?”
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.
What to Expect When You Start an Internet Kerfluffle
by Nancy Fulda
Your post strikes a nerve. It gets tweeted, and retweeted, and blogged about, and linked to. Comments start pouring in, both for and against your position. Your inbox is overflowing. You put other projects on hold.
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.
Grievance Committee Alert: Contract Safeguards Under Siege
There is a recent tendency of some publishers to change their contracts in manners that are decidedly unfavorable to authors. We have had and are having particular issues with indemnity clauses. Griefcom urges all of you to compare any offered contract to the SFWA Model Contract and to ask for changes in any clauses that are non-beneficial to you.
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.
How Do You Ask for a Blurb?
How do you ask for a blurb without making a nuisance of yourself? You do your research. Many professional authors have “blurb and review” policies in place on their websites, mostly out of self-defense.
SFWA Releases a New Model Magazine Contract
As part of its mission to serve professional genre writers, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America is pleased to announce that their Contracts Committee has released an updated Model Magazine Contract.
