Striving for increased pretension isn’t recommended, but here I am, desperately seeking to bolster my opinions by naming them. Are my ideas so weak they need inflating with an ‘ism’? Or have I developed a new way of thinking, or at least a tidy way to sweep together existing chunks of thought? You decide. Mentioning…
450 words on 5 Editors Tackling 12 Fatal Flaws
Hello everyone – apologies for the long absence. I could dish out an excuse revolving around my novel re-writing, but a new book review will dish out more fun. Sorting alphabetically is popular these days: our technology enjoys arranging everything, and computers often see numbers as coming before letters. If you put the title “5…
Abraham Lincoln and the Forth Bridge
Writing is a journey: a constant striving for new skills, a struggle to learn and implement new ways of communicating. Abraham Lincoln once said that if he was given six hours to chop down a tree he’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe – he knew the value of preparation.
Spit and polish (not my favourite flavour)
I’ve recently upgraded this blog to WordPress.org from WordPress.org. I have more control over the site design now, and am working out which widgets I can add. The design shouldn’t change too much, but you may experience my tinkering over the next few weeks. Aren’t you lucky. The novel hasn’t gone away. I recently had…
Lave Radio appearance
Another left tack in my blog posts, consistency doesn’t appear to be my strong point. The lovely people at Lave Radio interviewed me recently, following my appearance at Eastercon 2017. I talked about the upcoming Hugo Awards, my own writing, and even this blog. There’s nothing like recursion. My podcast is here. Lave Radio is linked…
Insert bottom on chair, place hands on keyboard…
A slight change of tack for this blog post. I’ve always wanted to write, I’ve always felt I had some talent, but I used to be far more skilled in delaying tactics than I was in motivating myself. My motto was ‘Procrastinate now!’
The Subtle Feed
I used to think there was a rule. Many science fiction short stories followed the rule, any remaining suck out. The template was simple, two or three paragraphs of introduction, introducing strangeness to the reader, a new environment, an action you couldn’t do on Earth. There followed another section, filling in backstory, an alternative history…
The false conflict
Writing is a journey. My writing started with my reaction to a modern myth – the idea of natural being better than artificial. I don’t hold the opposite view, but I wanted to challenge sloppy thinking. There are natural things I don’t want near me, like scorpions, death cap mushrooms, arsenic, lead, botulism, malaria,…
Taking the reality tablets
A conventional novel can draw on real life. Inspiration on speech patterns can come from a snatch of conversation overheard at the shops. Making a house seem realistic can be helped by seeing how a real house is built. Want to describe a foreign beach? Go there on holiday.
Hemingway was right
My 6th December post covered how writing novels was like turning iron ore into a sword. I’d left things at the refining stage, where my sword was still little more than an idea. I struggled to answer the question “What’s your novel about?”