Playing around in Gila National Wilderness or someplace just as wild. No entry today about the day. Topic: Setting and How to Write It Okay, to start a story (of any length) you have to begin. You have to write an opening. In order to write an opening, you have to create a character, give him a problem and drop him into a setting. But what do I mean by “setting”? First, here I’m talking about … Read more
Today I’m somewhere in the Gila National Wilderness or someplace just as wild. No entry today about the day. Topic of the Morning: Write What You Know — Seriously? Uh, no. Bad advice. Maybe the baddest advice ever, and I mean that in the old sense of “baddest,” before we started dumbing down the language. I mean “worst.” It’s bad advice because the connotation is that you should write ONLY what you know. So what? You’re … Read more
Rolled out a little before 2 this morning. I’ve done practically nothing this morning other than tend to the babies (two kits and a chihuahua), visit Facebook etc. The bug seems to be going away finally. Woohoo! I walked as a kind of test to see what I could do. Made almost 6 miles out a wash and back. Admittedly the sand was moist from all the rain so well-packed and good walking. Only slogged in … Read more
Note: This post first appeared in my blog in 2012. I’ve updated it with new information. Hi Folks, Seems like every other week or so someone reports to me that a writing instructor or contest judge or other self-appointed expert has advised that the writer should use less dialogue and more narrative in a given story. Recently, a respondent recalled the exact wording the professor of ludicrosity used: “If you change a lot of this dialogue … Read more
The Day Rolled out a little early this morning at about 1:30. After waking up with coffee and email, I thought about yesterday’s post. I was a little harsh maybe. For years I’ve seen writers, even retired, very successful business people, allow various companies to take advantage of them. I despise those companies, and I don’t mind being vocal about it. But the thing is, many writers bring these things on themselves. They’re intelligent people, by … Read more
Hi Folks, This will be an extra blog post. On 1 September I’ll be back to posting nuts and bolts how-to information for writing. I’ve come to see my daily journal, the other major blog post from this site, as eminently more important than this one. In it, I outline my day (the day of a professional writer) and write a Topic of the Night on most nights. I also generally pass along whatever important tidbits … Read more
The Day Got up closer to 3:30 this morning. Still dragging a bit. Checked email, got my coffee and went to check out Dean’s site. I haven’t been there for a few days. It’s almost better that way because when I go late, I read the comments too. Sometimes there’s some good stuff there. Reading Dean’s stuff took an hour, almost exactly. Worthwhile, though. I found out in the comments section that we both use the … Read more
The Day Ray Bradbury’s birthday. Ray Bradbury is the guy who knew at 12 years old what it took me 62 years to learn. Glad I didn’t wait until I was 63. Blessings, Mr. Bradbury. And thank you so much. Rolled out at 3 this morning. Checked email, got my coffee and had to go run off a bunch of coyotes. Ugh. No walk again today. Just writing again today. Listen, if you’re publishing your own … Read more
The Day Rolled out at 2 this morning. Checked email and saw that several revised/rebranded covers and Book 8 of the series were ready for proofing. So I got my coffee and started that process. Finished an hour or so later. Still amazes me that I have eight books out in that saga. Who’d’a thunk it? Last night I figured I wouldn’t walk today. I would use my early morning hours to get a jump start … Read more
Hi Folks, Note: Before I begin this post, I wanted to point you to an invaluable resource I recently found. At your leisure, please check out https://killzoneblog.com/. It’s a blog home of several best-selling authors. I’ve found some great advice there already on pacing. Also I want to offer you a free SF sampler from Lightspeed Magazine. I received it only this morning. To download it in PDF, just click Women Destroy Science Fiction (Sampler). When … Read more