One of the things I love most about writing speculative fiction is that I get to completely create whole new worlds. Some are not like our “reality” at all. Others are so close that at first glance they might seem the same—until you stumble across that one small detail that isn’t quite what you’d expect…
Category: On Writing
Helpful Ways to Best Your Worst Enemy
You’ve written a novel, a handful (or a boatload) of short stories, flash pieces or essays. You’ve queried, suffered rejection, and maybe been published. You’ve enlisted beta readers and participated in critique workshops. Others (not just your mom) have complimented your work. So why do you still sometimes feel like a fraud? Turns out Imposter…
The Blissful Pen: Confessions of People Who Write
Back in the early 80s I took a college class taught by award-winning writer Robert P. Arthur. I remember Bob as a big guy, not just in a physical sense with his tall, broad-shouldered self, but with his overall presence. He filled a room, that man. He expected—and inspired—a lot from his students, and to…
Empower Your Skill: Online Community with Big Heart
Looking for a critique group, but can’t find one in your area? Try Critters Workshop. I found them online several years ago and became enamored of the concept. Critters is an online critiquing community wherein writers submit their own works (mostly short stories or short segments of longer projects) for critique by other writers. Members…
Boost the Power: Shifting Perspective in a Story
Now that the Pitch Wars submission window has closed and the pressure is eased a bit, I’ve turned my attention to other projects. One of those, a short story entitled “29 Langwood Street,” has been lying around waiting to find a home. I admit I don’t like to write something and “trunk it” (put it…
Pitch Wars – 7 Days
If you read my post from last week, you’ll know (or at least suspect) that I’m a Pitch Wars hopeful this year. Since the submission window opens in SEVEN DAYS, I’m not doing anything else but shining up my work-in-progress. That means I don’t have a long, witty or educational post for you today. I…
Writing Skill: Social Media for the Win
I think I said in one of my blog posts earlier this year that I hoped to self-publish my work-in-progress by the end of 2018. Of course as we all know, plans are made to be changed, and mine was no different. Once I discovered Pitch Wars and the PW community, I decided I’d enter…
Break It Up: One Secret That Will Improve Focus
Most of the writers I know aren’t only writers. They work day jobs, raise families, do volunteer work, have a life that requires tending. You know how those everyday pressures are sometimes enough in and of themselves to make you want to scream. Add deadlines (self-imposed or otherwise), long hours in front of the computer…
How to Empower Authentic Emotional Scenes
I’ve always poo-pooed the saying “Write what you know.” Bull, I’ve said. I’m pretty sure Mary Shelley never built a Creature from human cadavers in her basement, yet Frankenstein has become a classic. Great writers always write things they don’t know. If they can do it, so can the rest of us. It only recently…
How to Drag Me Off the Couch
Who wants to read a flat novel that leaves you on your sofa throughout the entire book? Nobody, that’s who. A really excellent story snatches you off your couch, plunges you into the story, and drags you—flapping in the breeze—along for the ride. You feel the tension along with the protagonist. You experience the disappointments…