Sometimes it feels like there are a thousand things to remember when writing a story. New writers who make lists of these things soon begin to drown in them. But I’ve come to realize that many of these “rules” don’t matter.
Key PROBLEM conditions for reader suspense o Part 1 – It’s all about the reader o Part 2 – The 3 Problem Types o Part 3 – It’s gotta be difficult o Part 4 – Uncertainty Key CHARACTER conditions for reader suspense o Part 5 – Character troubles o Part 6 – Character deservingness o […]
A week or so ago, I asked a bunch of writers to share some of the best advice they’ve received and how they’ve used it. At the same time I asked them to share some of the worst, the weirdest, or the least helpful advice they’ve encountered over the years.
People once learned from one another what was worth knowing and doing, and the best of these memes worked their way through the population like a unending game of telephone. It was only with the advent of mass communication technology like printing, radio, and TV that a select few became able to easily influence great numbers of people. But with social media those select few are now finding themselves increasingly drowned out.
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
Many of the writers who contact me with Writer Beware-type questions seem to be convinced that the process of getting published is equivalent to a crap shoot. There are enormous numbers of people trying to …
Today the board of directors of SFWA voted to add the magazine Would That It Were retroactively to the list of SFWA qualifying markets. When Would That It Were began publishing in 2000, online magazines were in their infancy. The market criteria at SFWA was geared toward print magazines and at the time there was some […]
Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.
This old saw applies to writers as much as to musicians. In today’s guest blog post, author and writing teacher Barbara Baig explores the impo…
An important part of developing as a writer is learning when to trust your voice, and how to tell the difference between trusting your vision and being stubborn about something that doesn’t work.
Self-promotion: a subject much on many writers’ minds. All across the Internet, new authors are urged to be proactive in publicizing themselves and their books–to build a “brand.” But what to do? And how much?
A frequent question, especially among self- and small press-published authors, is how books get into libraries, and what authors can do to help. Today, guest blogger and public librarian Abigail Goben explains how libraries choose the books they purchase–and what authors should (and shouldn’t) do to play a part in that process.
Underachieving vampire Fortitude Scott and his kitsune friend Suzume Hollis are back in this sequel to GENERATION V. When Fort discovers his new, rent-paying roommate’s body he has to work fast to find the real killer, making unexpected alliances.
Two-time Prix Aurora Award finalist and winner of The Galaxy Project, Forest’s stories appear in Analog, Asimov’s, OnSpec, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, AE SF Review, and her collection, Immunity to Strange Tales. She edits for Edge Press.
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