Archive for the ‘The Craft of Writing’ Category

Guest Post: I’ve made every mistake an author can make in their writing career

by Jason Sanford

This has been a tough writing year for me. I finished my first novel only to learn that at this point in my writing career it’s going to be a hard sell. I’ve struggled with short fiction, publishing only two stories this year. I’ve even wondered why I’m writing stories in the first place (which probably ties back with the issues I’ve had with the novel and short fiction). All of this caused me to step back and reflect on my writing career up to this point. And I’ve realized I’ve made just about every mistake an author can make, career-wise.

Speaking With Authority About Things That (Probably) Do Not Exist

by Jeremiah Tolbert

I once sat beside a campfire in Washington and listened to a man with a pistol strapped to his waist lecture for an hour about the ecology and habits of the Sasquatch. Meanwhile, my companions–a college professor and two high school teachers–had taken up buckets in a circle around our camp and were drumming to attract the great skunk ape into our midst.

2014 Online Odyssey Writing Workshops Announced

From the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust: This winter, the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust is offering three live online courses with the same high quality and rigorous approach as its acclaimed, in-person Odyssey workshop:  Showing versus Telling in Fantastic Fiction, One Brick at a Time:  Crafting Compelling Scenes, and Effective Endings in Speculative Fiction. […]

Guest Post: On Writing: Can You Do It Wrong?

by Cat Rambo

Are you putting words on the page? Then you are doing it right.

You may not be creating publishable words. You may not be creating amazing words. You may not be creating words you like. But by creating words, you are doing something actual, tangible, verifiable. And that puts you ahead of all the people who aren’t writing.