Posts Tagged ‘ writing ’

What’s J Been Reading? [Feast of Qawl, 23 Nov 11]

Of course, the big news in the literary world is the passing of Anne McCaffrey. The best tribute (I have read) to this amazing author is by Juliette Wade, who discusses how McCaffrey brought genre definitions into play with her Dragonriders of Pern series.  Also at Wade’s Talk To YoUniverse blog: an excellent piece on how hard choices for your characters require consequences.

Melville House, one of my favorite sources for publishing news, details an intense and disappointing exchange between blogger Jeremy Duns, who outed the plagiarism of Quentin Rowan, and the latest accused plagiarist Lenore Hart.  (By the way, considering that her subject is Poe, Lenore Hart must be a pseudonym, yes?)

BEST READ OF THE DAY: Josh Getzler at Hey There’s a Dead Guy gives us a truly remarkable insight into the writing process by showing us how a writer feels when he’s given the opportunity to enjoy his own writing as a reader.  There is so much that can be taken from this piece (for writers and readers) that I won’t say more.  Go check it out.

What Has J Been Reading? [Vespasian's Birthday, 17 Nov 11]

After my brief detour through Charles Bukowski‘s Pulp, I am back into Raymond Chandler‘s anthology, The Simple Art of Murder.  Specifically, the short story “Pickup On Noon Street.”  Lots of archaic racial stereotypes, so I am waiting to see if the story rolls into some redeeming qualities.

In science news, Jupiter’s moon Europa is believed to have shallow subsurface lakes that connect to the deeper moon-wide ocean.  Hard sci-fi writers … On your mark! Get set!

On the writing front: Read more »

Ten Literary Rumors I’d Like To Start

In honor of my friend Genghis Ron‘s blog post, “Ten Rumors I’d Like To Start,” let me offer my bookish version: Read more »

Curing The Heartbreak of Being Published.

I love this article.  It is realistic and honest, even brutally so, but tough and helpful. Love it, love it, love it.

In a blogosphere where so much of what’s aimed at the aspiring writer is positive-thinking pablum, author Ruth Harris offers us some warnings, some disillusionment, and some practical advice on how to get over it all, in her “6 Prescriptions To Cure The Heartbreak Of Being Published.” 

The comment thread is also an eyeful (and a mindful) as well.  Kudos on a fantastic piece of advice!

Stephen King on Tabitha – Selected quotes from “On Writing : A Memoir of the Craft”

I was hesitant to read Stephen King’s On Writing because I was afraid I would find little in it that was unexpected.  Keep sending out queries, ✔ check.  Don’t use this or that part of speech except when it works, ✔ check.  Read a lot, ✔ check.  Write a lot, ✔ check.

But, I did finally relent, and one key theme in the memoir struck me as more insightful than anything I had read about writing for years.  In fact, I think it merits a book of its own.  I am talking about the critical influence of people other than the writer in the success of that writer. For King, the most important other-than-the-writer person is his wife Tabitha.

No matter how important individual determination might be, for a social creature like Homo sapiens there is no such thing as individual success.  All success is cooperative.  There would be no Stephen King (as we know him) if there were no Tabitha King.

So, today I want to share what I feel are the most revealing and inspiring quotes on Tabitha from On Writing. Read more »

Best First Lines (according to Leith) – Part 3

In part one of this series, I discussed the pros and cons of insisting on killer opening lines, how it serves the interests of agents and editors more than readers, yet how a strong first line can still lend an air of dignity and confidence to any story.  In part two, I presented my favorite first lines based on engaging ideas.

Today I want to dig into my second list of Best First Lines, six of them, dedicated to openers that present the reader with an engaging character.

You might think that the “engaging character” in question would always be the first-person narrator but, as we’ll see, that’s not always the case.

Read more »

Who Sees What When Cultures Collide?

In a damn* interesting piece yesterday at Talk To YoUniverse, Juliette Wade discusses how writers can navigate the differing perspectives of characters inside and outside a culture group.

She uses her own experience as a foreigner in Japan who speaks Japanese “too well,” but lays out a set of general principles writers can use to make the meeting of any two cultures seem more authentic, whether they are writing historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, a modern realist tale about culture clash, or even a story about the distinctive culture of a single family.

Enjoy “Insiders and Outsiders.”

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* Taking Mark Twain’s advice. Sans editors.

Four Approaches to Female Characters in Historical Fiction and Fantasy

You’ve come a long way, baby! I mean … um … ladies.

Women have made a lot of progress over the past century, particularly in the Western world.  Western readers in the 21st Century have a low tolerance for the sort of overt sexism that readers of previous eras — and in broad stretches of the map even today — would simply take for granted.  This puts a lot of pressure on writers of historical fiction and fantasy set in a fictional past.  How can we tell a story with female characters which won’t offend (or worse, bore) modern readers, but which also doesn’t seem hokey in its chronological context?

Well, there are at least four approaches to this dilemma…
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Story structure helps your story fly

Some writers might dismiss the concept of story structure as contrived of stiflingly un-artistic conventions, a set of gimmicks reserved for mere “genre” fiction, i.e. stories with (allegedly) little importance.

You want a story with weight and seriousness? Violate the rules!

Others might obsess about their stories adhering to the proper pattern, as if they are filling out a form.  What page is the Inciting Incident supposed to occur?  Where’s my guidebook?

There is a middle ground, my friends.

Read more »

Why you don’t want to be a writer

Every week or so, someone sends me an email or direct Tweet or Facebook message asking me whether I am published and why not.*  After I explain that I am really not trying all that hard to get published, typically I get some sort of lecture about never giving up, hard work is the key to success, just stick with it…

Well, I do “stick with it.”  I spend two or more hours every day writing, rewriting, plotting and character developing, researching, or some other writing-related activity.  I enjoy it, it’s part of who I am, and other people enjoy reading it.

So, if I’m devoting that much time to writing, why not devote similar intensity to getting an agent and getting published?  Well…

Chuck Wendig at the Terrible Minds blog explains far better (and far funnier) than I can why trying to be a published writer is not the glamorous funfest many people fantasize that it is.

Caution: Chuck is a grown-up and he uses grown-up language.

And, big thanks to Les Edgerton (author of Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go) for pointing me to Chuck’s hilarious, and convincing, rant.

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* Beyond that one story in Milk & Ink and a few college lit mag pieces from years ago.