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(Temporarily) Computer-Free Writing
by N. R. M. Roshak Editor’s note: This piece is part of an occasional series titled Writing by Other Means, in which authors share personal…
Dance the Exotic Dance for Me!
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…
A Brief History of SFWA: The Beginning (Part 2)
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…
A Brief History of SFWA: The Beginning (Part 1)
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…
Whoops, I Wrote a Story: How to Make App Addictions Work for Your Writing
by Marie Croke Editor’s note: This piece is part of an occasional series titled Writing by Other Means, in which authors share personal experiences and…
Discovery Writing Through Gaming
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…
Phoning It In: Finding Time to Write in Unexpected Places
by Priya Chand Editor’s note: This piece is part of an occasional series titled Writing by Other Means, in which authors share personal experiences and…
The Ballad of the Slush Reader: What I’ve Learned (And What I Want to Know) about Reading Slush
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…
The Poet’s Toolbox: Three Strategies for a Vivid Prose Voice
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…
Gamifying Your Writing Goals
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…
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Top Tips from THE INDIE FILES
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…
How to Rewrite a Story for a Different Call
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…
Culture: Moving Beyond Set Dressing
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…
Perceiving the Wind: Finding Magic in the Mundane
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…
Character Development Lessons From Video Games
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…
THE INDIE FILES: How to Pitch Your Book to Libraries So They See You as an Easy Win to Please Their Patrons
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…
Inspiration Point: How Can Narrative-Driven RPGs Help Write Better Fiction?
by L. E. Torres One day in 1986, after concluding an exciting Dungeons & Dragons campaign with my high school friends, I decided to write…
New to Your Public Persona? Handling the Non-Writing Parts of Being an Author
By Noah Sturdevant Who are you? No, not in a “name, rank, and serial number” kind of way or the physical parts on display….
Yes, We Need Diverse Books, But We Also Need Diverse Reviewers–Still*
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…
Tie Up the Loose Ends: A Writer’s Guide to Sailor’s Knots
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…
Writing SFF With Paper and Pen Spurs Memory and Creativity
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…
THE INDIE FILES: Continuous Marketing and Selling Costs
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…
Trusting Your Voice as an ESL Writer
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…
In Memoriam: James A. Moore
James A. Moore (03 September 1965 – 27 March 2024) was a prolific, versatile, and award-winning horror, dark fantasy, comic, and game writer. He crafted…