by Diane Morrison
Everyone says that indie publishing is the wave of the future. Avoiding gatekeepers, who are often prejudiced against particular ideas or demographics, and putting your work out there to see if it will sink or swim on its own, puts the power (and the money) back in the hands of the writers. I had an unusual idea and format that I realized would have difficulty finding a home because of its experimental nature, so I though I would give it a try.
by Ken Pelham
Your stiff-upper-lipped hero, Professor Jenkins, frustrated with the chicanery of Air Captain Hamm, pounds the table and shouts, “Good heavens, man! The scoundrel has hatched yet another outrageous boondoggle!”
Boondoggle. This is where your narrative gets stuck in the etymological weeds.
by Paul Jessup
Novels are like long, committed relationships. They take months to years of your life, and they require complete and utter devotion to their singular purpose. Certainly, there is something to living inside of a novel, breathing inside of it, thinking about it every moment of your day. It’s an all-consuming thing, as exhausting as it is rewarding.
by Suyi Davies Okungbowa
It’s virtually impossible to do ALL of your SFF worldbuilding prior to writing your book/story. How much weight is given to each stage depends on the author (some prefer to do a lot before starting, some build nothing before writing). My own preference is to build the foundation–just enough to get me started, then build more along the way, and go back and change stuff after I’m done.
by Cameron N. Coulter
Since March 2018, I’ve been writing a monthly short fiction review column for Skiffy and Fanty. A year ago, I didn’t have too many thoughts on reviewing, but now I find I can have long conversations about it.
by Paul Jessup
Ever since I first started taking writing seriously as a teenager, I’ve always written to music. Back then it was a bit more difficult than it is now, in the days of Spotify and gigantic playlists that can stretch on for hours or even days. Back in those days I would make mix tapes for my writing, each story and scene would get its own mixtape of songs that I felt carried the tone and the emotion of what I’m trying to convey.
by Chris Sumberg
The phrase “clear as a mountain stream” gets splashed around pretty loosely, sometimes in reference to clear writing but also in reference to the sometimes not-at-all-clear names of actual bodies of water, clear or otherwise. When you take time to examine the hard, cold facts, it makes you wonder if writing that is as clear as a mountain stream is, in fact, very clear at all.
by E. D. E. Bell
As a former engineer, data analyst, strategic advisor, and manager who entered the fiction writing and fiction editing world not too far apart and not so long ago, I’ve had to come up to speed quickly on concepts and best practices that a lot of editors my age have been practicing a long time.
by Deborah Walker
I don’t find productivity to be a one size fits all discipline. Sometimes a theory or technique just doesn’t resonate for me. For example, I’ve never got on with the Pomodoro technique, but some authors love it. I listened to a podcast recently where a motivational speaker was very insistent that if you don’t have goals then you can’t achieve anything worthwhile. Goals aren’t for me. I’d rather define processes rather than goals. I’ll write every weekday rather than I’ll finish a novel in a year. Many productivity experts swear by meditation, but I don’t care for it. The best advice for techniques is to try them on for size and see if they fit.
by Sandra M. Odell
I have struggled with the titanic highs and crushing lows of severe mental illness and PTSD most of my life, yet nothing quite prepared me for the psyche shitstorm that followed the release of my second collection, “Godfall & Other Stories. ”
Humanity is crushed onto seven small worlds, and an enigmatic alien super-culture sets impossible goals to qualify for contact. A discharged mental patient finds himself bankrupt; his escape is to venture further into the cosmos than he ever dreamed.
Laurie Stevens is the author of the multi-award winning Gabriel McRay suspense series and The Return, a new sci-fi/fantasy that pits AI against human consciousness.
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