Planetside Full Archives

by N. R. M. Roshak Editor’s note: This piece is part of a series titled Writing by Other Means, where authors share personal experiences and industry intel around different production contexts and writing tools. My laptop is my mainstay. Between…

by Yoon Ha Lee When I was a kid in the 1980s and 1990s, I adored classical mythology, Arthurian mythology, the Cthulhu mythos. I was the weirdo who holed up in the library reading Tacitus, Plato, and Sylvia Plath for…

by Michael Capobianco Editor’s note: This piece is the second in a two-part overview of the first year of SFWA, curated by a member of the organization’s History Committee. Part 1 is available here. Damon Knight was now president of…

by Michael Capobianco Editor’s note: This piece is the first in a two-part overview of the first year of SFWA, curated by a member of the organization’s History Committee. Part 2 is available here. On January 15, 1965, Damon Knight,…

by Marie Croke Editor’s note: This piece is part of a series titled Writing by Other Means, where authors share personal experiences and industry intel around different production contexts and writing tools. From phones and tablets to computers, we all…

by Austin Conrad How do you move forward when stuck on telling a story? Sometimes the best way is to play your story at the gaming table. A roleplaying game’s collaborative creativity is a fun and effective method of discovery…

by Priya Chand Editor’s note: This piece is part of a series titled Writing by Other Means, where authors share personal experiences and industry intel around different production contexts and writing tools. This piece was drafted in pieces, first on…

by Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas Introduction – In Which I Rant a Little First, let me get this off my chest; I don’t believe that reading slush can make anyone a better writer. I say this because anytime a magazine opens…

By Ursula Whitcher Writing poetry allows for rapid experimentation with language on a fine scale. Though there’s lots of mystique around being a poet, the key genre expectation is close attention: poetry rewards readers for noticing what’s happening at the…

By Gideon P. Smith We all have writing dreams, but they often remain dreams without solid productivity goals to turn them into reality. Unfortunately, as with adhering to the Prime Directive or making the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs,…

by SFWA Publications Crew Independent publishing can feel as daunting as it is empowering. Monthly at the SFWA Blog, THE INDIE FILES has offered tips and insights to help authors taking this route to share their writing with the world….

By Dannye Chase So you’ve got a solid story and a perfect publication. The problem? They don’t quite match up.  Have no fear! If you wrote it, you can unwrite it, and then rewrite it for that sweet new market. …

by Kanishk Tantia The first story I ever wrote was unabashedly my own: written with unfiltered childlike enthusiasm, completed within a single draft and, to my eyes, perfect upon completion. Two donkeys killed each other because one was purple and…

by Austin Conrad As advice, “write what you know” is nearly as hackneyed as “show, don’t tell.” Both pieces of advice are essentially correct, but writers hear them so often we don’t really process either recommendation. This is doubly true…

By Samantha Garner When you think of video games, do you think of rich character development? Unfortunately, many people believe video game characters are either implausibly indestructible, or worse: boring. As a fan of fantasy and action role-playing video games,…

by Kelly McClymer Most writers grew up reading books checked out from the library. There is a special place in our hearts for those library shelves full of books, so naturally, we want our books to be there. For indie…

by L. E. Torres One day in 1986, after concluding an exciting Dungeons & Dragons campaign with my high school friends, I decided to write a novel telling their exploits. The game had been a roaring success, all non-stop action…

By Noah Sturdevant   Who are you? No, not in a “name, rank, and serial number” kind of way or the physical parts on display. Not the broad character traits you associate with yourself, either. It’s a complicated question, right?…

by Erika Hardison Ever since Black YA Fantasy author L.L. McKinney set Twitter (now known as X) ablaze with her hashtag #PublishingPaidMe in 2021, the traditional publishing industry has been scrambling to give the appearance that they are truly committed…

by May Haddad Knot tying (“nodology” in Latin, “kompology” in Greek) is a time-honored skill honed in seafaring for millennia. Its history intertwines with maritime exploration, naval warfare, and the development of trade routes all over the world. Even as…

By R.J. Huneke I recently went back to something for the first time in many years: I wrote the entire first draft of two SFF works, a short story, and a novel, in longhand. There was an ease of flow…

by William C. Tracy Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series from William C. Tracy. Part 1 focused on publishing and release costs, comparing traditional and indie publishing. Part 2 will present marketing resources, including a Google…

By Gunnar De Winter Much has been said and—obviously—written about the writer’s voice. But what if that voice speaks in a language that is not your native one? While a writer’s voice is, by definition, hard to define, it lives…

by Diana M. Pho Introduction The role of an editor in book publishing is shrouded in mystery. Perhaps it’s because our job faces dualistic scrutiny by writers. Editors are creative guides but also gatekeepers preventing you from getting published. Editors…