Talent and criticism
Last week, I kept stumbling across stories about the different responses people have to feedback. The first couple came in the form of two versions of the old story about the violin maestro. He was...
View ArticleLives of writers and characters
Quite a few well-known writers have had strange, exciting, or adventurous lives. Ernest Hemingway was an ambulance driver during WWI, after which he did things like bull running in Spain and safaris in...
View ArticleOn Head-Hopping
Head-hopping is a mildly pejorative term for a writing technique that is usually summed up as “switching viewpoints within a scene,” followed by the strong recommendation that one should never, ever do...
View ArticleFrom the Mailbag – Building an Imaginary Society
Every so often, I get a question that makes me blink. The most recent one was something along the lines of “How would a matriarchal society work, especially in terms of politics, child rearing,...
View ArticleGetting ready
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is coming up, and people are preparing to slam out 50,000 words between November 1 and November 30. The people at Creative Live have decided to offer a discount...
View ArticleMore mail
I have a world I’ve fallen in love with but I’m afraid of putting out a story in my favorite world too early and having it not sell well because I haven’t gained some critical mass of skills or fans. I...
View ArticleTrust Your Story
Over the years, I’ve talked to a lot of writers about their writing processes, and specifically about why they do certain things. I’m always exceedingly bemused by the people who claim to put specific...
View ArticleConflict Isn’t Necessary
I keep running across people who think conflict is the root of all plot. Google “conflict in fiction” and you get 155 million hits. One of the first began with a definition: “Character + want +...
View ArticleRules, er, Guidelines of Writing
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” ― W. Somerset Maugham I love that quote. I think of it whenever I’m faced with a would-be writer or critic who is...
View ArticleScenes, advice, and complexity
“Every scene must cause or lead into the next scene.” I ran across this particular bit of writing advice recently; it was followed by a couple of tips such as “cut any scene that isn’t caused by the...
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