So you’re writing hard science fiction. You’ve spent a week researching the thermal control systems on space stations for a scene where you need a time-dependent problem for the heroes to fix. The problem is, you’ve got like an 80-page dissertation on exactly what goes wrong and how to fix Read more…
When I started writing fiction, and thought of my potential audience, I knew who I wanted to appeal to: Everyone. Well, okay, that’s impossible, but I had this idea there was a sort of mass of “normal” people out there who were dominant. I should write for them, the normals. Read more…
When I was starting out as a short story writer –and for longer after I started than I am proud to admit– I thought my stories should grow organically as I wrote them, that they should be spontaneous things unexpected even to myself. Writing without a plan is so prevalent Read more…
“Someone told me they’re adding my story to their Nebula ballot!” I gushed to my friend Nyla. “Which story?” she asked, since, as a member of my writing workshop, she gets to read them all. “Knit Three, Save Four,” I said. She frowned. “But that’s not your best story this Read more…
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…
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…
When I was an unpublished, aspiring writer, oh lo those 15 years ago, I was soaking in desperation.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…