Back in my film school days, a common phrase drilled into our heads by our professors was “Kill your babies”. Nowadays I hear the same basic sentiment, somewhat sanitized to […]
Read moreCategory: process of writing
The Problem with Being a Planner
I don’t ever tried to hide the fact that when it comes to the planner/pantser divide between writers, I fall firmly on the side of planners. (Except when it comes […]
Read moreFantasy Sports
I’m not going to be talking about Fantasy Football Leagues, or anything of the sort. Frankly, I don’t know much of anything about those. Rather, I want to talk about […]
Read moreDismantling the Structure
With two next-draft projects on my plate, I thought I’d take a look at what next-drafting entails. It boils down to three things: editing, re-writing and adding new material. The […]
Read moreWorking on a working space
I do most of my writing work on my laptop. This is mostly out of practicality, in that I kind of need to be mobile and write when and where […]
Read moreWorldbuilding: Setting the Limits
I was reminded by Mike Caton’s post about the sometimes artificial limits we place on our worlds when we are building them. On some level, that’s because without those limits, […]
Read moreWriting Minor Characters: The Story of Citizen #4
I believe that I’m somewhat unusual amongst fantasy/sci-fi writers, in that I cut my writers’ teeth as a playwright. Coming at writing novels from a theatre background gives me a […]
Read moreIntentionally hiding tools in your toolbox.
Interesting bit of “advice” I heard the other day: A stylistic thing: I was just at the Backspace Conference, where in the opening pages agent-author seminar, the agents stopped reading […]
Read moreWorldbuilding: Listening to the whispering muse
I’m not much of one for personifying my process, or presenting it as being something outside of myself, out of my control. I’m not a fan of, as I once […]
Read moreWorldbuilding: Avoiding the Generic
I was going to talk about maps and food today. Then I decided I needed to rework the map in question. Looking at it again, I was unhappy with it– […]
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