Category for all my writer-related stuff
When I first started writing fiction, it felt like everything I wrote was either under 1,000 words or over 10,000… and the short fiction markets prefer the lengths between those two extremes. In fact, different fiction markets have different “sweet spots” for what they want. Some magazines prefer 2,000 word Read more…
I’ve written before about the bizarre snobbery in genre fiction, where some genres (science fiction) think they are better than others (fantasy). In the SF community this snobbery usually takes the form of, “That trope isn’t plausible. This isn’t SF, it’s fantasy!” (As though a fantasy magazine would buy your Read more…
This is a post about revising, which means it’s also a post about drafting. Sorry. You have to see the drafting to understand the editing. I promise it’s over quickly. I write my stories from rough outlines, usually a list of scenes I want to have happen like this: A. Read more…
It’s been very hard to try to write, lately. That’s okay. Every life has its disasters and upheavals. It’s no different when you share that disaster with the whole world. I picked up an old fanfic to get myself to write something I wasn’t going to stress out about getting Read more…
I just signed my first ever novel contract, and many people are asking me how I went from manuscript to actual advance money! The bad news is we have to go waaaay back on this one: High School. I was sending my first novel to publishers, “A” (It would be Read more…
When I was an unpublished, aspiring writer, oh lo those 15 years ago, I was soaking in desperation. I thought-screamed, “What do you want from me?!” over every rejection letter. If they’d only say, I could write it! I tried to come up with the Cool New Concept that would Read more…
My friend Louis was telling me about a fictional holiday on the TV show 30Rock called “Leap Day” — like February 29th was an actual holiday with a santa-like character associated with it and a traditional dish and observances… but what sold it to him was there were also traditional Read more…