I don’t usually mirror entire posts from one blog to another, but this one, which is a Writing Craft post, is both pertinent to a current project (the Horngard I book) and to every writer, because all of us write a “bad” first chapter from time to time…and don’t fix it right away. What do Read More…
Tag: technical bits
Some Thoughts on WriterBrain, First Rock (with a few decorations)
On another site, on which I’d written a long comment about the statement “ignorance is bliss” someone complimented my writing (always pleasant to hear) and thought my “story-writing brain” was completely back in service. Which–though much improved–it’s not. That’s not a venue in which to explain how many different components and levels a fiction writing Read More…
Why Writers Should Read Their Own Books….
…even after publication. Before, for instance, turning in the next book (if at all possible.) At least read the old manuscript file. Because otherwise a person who thinks she knows *exactly* what the end of the previous book was like (after all, it’s the last thing she revised, and proofread, and sent off to Editor) Read More…
Of Time and Orientation
If you write a novel with a linear structure and only one POV character–no skipping off for flashbacks, for alternate points of view or “meanwhile back at the ranch” segments–keeping the temporal continuity is simple. First this, then that, then the next thing, and the solid singular POV keeps even the writer perfectly oriented to Read More…
Copy Edits, Take 2
For me, working on copy edits means having all the following at hand (or just down the hall): dictionary, Chicago Manual of Style, directions and notes from publisher (I manage to screw up at least once anyway, but I try not to), the mechanical pencil (because it stays sharp) and a spare, and of course Read More…
Nose to the Grindstone
In the “where are we now?” category, the book is, as of today, at 16,000 words (still short fiction of the novelette or novella type) and 83 manuscript pages. The good news is that story is flowing. It’s going nonlinear in the “threaded plot” sense, as Aunt Grace, Rector of Defense, has just gotten home Read More…
Nostos
http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/128481 Nostos was OED’s word of the day today, and when I looked at its definition, it hit me that this is the perfect word to apply to very long-form stories, such as TV miniseries and multi-volume works that have a long, overall narrative arc as well as a short arc for each volume. These Read More…
Fossils
In the previous post I blithely announced that I was finished, done, absolutely and finally done with the structural revisions. This morning, working on temporal nits (the book has day-by-day notation in some places, and Editor had found some of them to be either confusing or obviously wrong–fossils of earlier drafts), I found a great Read More…
Implants and Implications
All the Vatta books include characters who have cranial implants that enhance their mental abilities and characters who are opposed to implants as a form of “humodification” that makes the user less human and more machine. Having or not having an implant creates social expectations and has legal implications as well. Not all implants are Read More…
RSS Feeds
There’ve been questions about RSS feed(s). On the sidebar on the right, down at the bottom, there’s a section headed “Meta.” There they are. I feel really…unobservant, if not stupid, for not noticing that before. My web guru, when I asked her to add RSS, pointed out they already existed. Hope this helps!