Category: Writing

I’ve been doing some research this week on various markets to start submitting short fiction, and given my own tendencies in genre I have been exploring the best short fiction markets for speculative fiction, including Asimov’s, Analog, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was this last one that caught my attention, however, when I was looking at… Read more →

I’ve always been fascinated with writers. From an early age I wanted to know more about these strange alchemists who were able to write such interesting and compelling stories, who were able to move me and make me feel things about people that didn’t even exist. I know a lot of people are likewise captivated. It took me a while… Read more →

1. Starting a Novel is Hard. No joke. A novel is an 80,000-100,000 length journey with a unity of theme and character. This is a monumental task, something that might be required of Hercules like slaying a Minotaur. You’re basically committing yourself to spending anywhere from three months to a year with the same people and the same events. That’s… Read more →

These are a few observations I learned from my years (about thirteen years) of regular writing. 1. You learn more with every book. I wrote the original draft to The Book of Secrets way back in the spring of 2006. It was bad and derivative. I thought it was genius. That thought died hard on the vine. So I redrafted… Read more →

A lot of writers seem convinced of a ton of myths about writing, something I assume experience would teach otherwise, but hey, its a funny ol’ world. One of those myths is that the writer has no need for outlining. Various influential writers don’t outline, and some are really vocal about sneering down at the process. Stephen King attacks outlining… Read more →