Girl, You’re In the Army Now

Why do authors write equal opportunities for women into fantasy worlds with pre-modern technologies and societies? Unless they are Terry Pratchett, they’re only making themselves look silly.

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Watch City Festival Costume

Writing Oddly

I’ve been thinking about what makes me write, and what makes writing interesting. I find a lot of gray goo out there. You know what I mean, writing that you can’t remember five minutes after […]

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How to Hook Your Reader and Deliver

A great story opening arouses, delays and rewards. Constructing a compelling beginning—often called a hook—is a common challenge for even established writers, and one of the most important parts of a story. The opening should […]

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Follow-Up and Follow Through

Writing a blog about writing has led me to a lot of cool websites and other writing blogs. I’ve found more tools than I’ve ever had to help me get my stories written. As I’ve […]

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Novedades abril-mayo

Como dije en el otro post, seguimos produciendo. He aquí de las novedades que me han comunicado de los meses de abril y mayo LIBROS “De monstruos y trincheras” de Ramón Merino Collado. (Espiral Ciencia […]

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Your Majesty, I’m So Over You

Ranks and titles are powerful tools in the fantasy writer’s toolkit. What a shame they are used so unimaginatively in general. I offer some inspiration alongside your weekly dose of young fogeyishness.

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Muse Ridden

As I write this, it’s bank holiday in the UK and Memorial Day in the US. The sun is out and – against all the odds – summer is actually here. So what’s a writer […]

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On the Muses

Lesley Smith’s post today prompted me to revisit my own experiences with the Muses.  It caused me to ask myself this question:  What does my Muse look like? In classical (Greek) mythology, there are nine […]

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The Eyes of Fiction

They say that the eyes are the windows of the soul- we’ve heard that so many times. But when it comes to fiction, this appears to be true. In 2012, I started writing an indie […]

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How To End Your Story

Have you ever seen the movie The Party with Peter Sellers? The first scene is priceless. Sellers plays an actor who is shot in a war scene; he subverts the script by refusing to die. […]

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Life Cycle of a Novel

Some writers work from an outline, others just wing it. They start at page one and write one scene after another, with only a vague idea of where they’re headed. I know a guy who’s […]

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Interview with a Reader

After a series of interviews with self-published authors, I thought I would interview a reader. Or rather, three of them, Sanford Begley, Joseph Capdepon II, and Jack William Finley. (Jack is also a writer.) They […]

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Demystifying the Synopsis

A synopsis is a larger version of the book jacket blurb you see on the back of most paperbacks in the bookstore. You write a synopsis for the same reason: to sell a story idea […]

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I am a Reader

Before I was a writer, I was a reader. My mother tells me I’ve been reading since I was four, and I accept that, because I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. By […]

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A Review of Writing Fantasy Heroes

Writing Fantasy Heroes Jason M. Waltz, ed. Rogue Blades Entertainment trade paper, $14.99, ebook $ 7.99 Kindle (There is no other electronic version available that I’m aware of.) Okay, class, today we’re going to have […]

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From the In Box 4/28/13

Tony C Smith from StarshipSofa sent along the following:   Live Video Writers Workshop with Mike Resnick and Paul Di Filippo 16th June 2013 UK Greenwich Mean Time 17:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST) 12:00 Central […]

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