Special Double Issue #216 of The Bulletin Now Available!
The Bulletin #216 is now available for download for SFWA members and participants of the 2021 Nebula Conference Online. Cover: […]
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writing advice
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Guest Post: Writing Advice
You become a writer by writing. You learn by damaging your ego, and giving more of yourself than you take. By a thousand revelations, by millions of words you improve.
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How to be a Writer and Have a Life: or, Livin’ the Dream
Writing is a rewarding and fun gig, but finding the time to write can be a challenge. The only commodity an author has are her words, and the only way to produce that commodity is to get some quality butt-in-chair action. Contrary to urban legend, stories don’t write themselves or grow on Novel Trees. So how do you find the time to make the magic happen?
Information Center, The SFWA BlogKey Conditions for Reader Suspense:
Key Conditions for Reader Suspense:
Part 4 – Uncertainty
Surprise is one of the vital elements in story making precisely because it makes things unpredictable. It makes hope, fear, worry, and curiosity possible.
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Guest Post: Advice for Teen Writers
There’s nothing like writing during adolescence. The intensity, focus, and emotional strength that such a writer brings to her/his work is, like a map frozen in time, sharply delineated and can’t be captured except as a memory of once walking in those lands.
The SFWA Blog
Writer and Parent? Tips for Finding Your New Balance
My daughter Athena was born in 1998, and once my wife completed her six-week maternity leave, I was and still am the stay-at-home parent, caring for our daughter Athena during the day. Along the way I’ve also managed to write a dozen books and literally thousands of articles and entries for magazines, newspapers, blogs and online sites. How have I managed to juggle kid-watching duties with writing work?
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The Pirate Code of Children’s Literature
Inside of genre circles, “YA” seems to be taking hold as a catch-all term for anything written for anyone under 18. Since so many people use YA as a catch-all, it’s becoming a catch-all, so how children’s book industry people define the category doesn’t matter. Does it?
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Guest post–Leave the Vomit In or, Learning to Trust Your Voice
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.
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The Writing Parent
When I consider trying to maintain my writing and care for human children, my head boggles. Others have done it, wresting time and space while caring for family. I decided to ask a small panel of talented writers and fellow SFWA members about how they did it
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The Moss-Troll Problem
Literature is all about metaphors–analogies. One thing is like another. Much of literature works by saying, “This thing is like this other thing.” In secondary world stories, how do you handle metaphors?
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Useful link: Ergociser — stretches for writers
One of the most common pieces of advice for new writers is “Keep your seat in the chair.” The downside is that it becomes all too easy to sit at the desk for hours without moving. This can lead to stiffness and circulation issues even with an ergonomically correct desk and chair. Ergocise.com is a program which pops up a reminder to stretch at pre-set intervals.
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Aphorisms for Writing Science Fiction
This article by David Alexander Smith covers some of useful rules of thumb for story structure and world-building.