Category Archives: Writing

Merrie Haskell lists podcasts on writing.

Elizabeth Bear on when to start submitting a novel. That’s when it’s as good as you can make it, not when it’s perfect. Same thing Pat Wrede has said on rasfc.

My review of Ann Hood’s Creating Character Emotions is up in the Sept./Oct. issue of Vision.

Jennifer Jackson () on success. Kristin Nelson gets in on the posting query summaries on a blog thing, taking the idea from (Rachel Vater), and commenters are not impressed. My quibble with this action (not K.N.’s specifically) isn’t with posting summaries of rejected queries, it’s with doing so before sending the rejection letter to the author. Even with a vague summary that doesn’t identify the book, it just doesn’t seem right for the whole internet to know about a rejection before the author does.

What not to do in a cover letter, compared to picking up a woman in a bar.

raleva31 on writing as an inborn talent vs a practiced craft. It begins

Another little controversial thing I hear once in a while is this idea that good writers are just born that way: They have this different, special way of looking at the world that the rest of us can’t even hope to see unless we see it through their eyes. They have this very special “gift” with words and thoughts.

I am going to disagree with that.

I agree with her. There is such a thing as talent, but it’s not going to do a lazy writer any good. And the “writers are special” thing doesn’t appeal to me, especially when self-proclaimed writers use it to set themselves above other people and then fail to actually write.

On a related note, the AP begins an article on Nora Roberts with Endless reserves of imagination aren’t all it takes to write 165 novels. It also requires the discipline of a drill sergeant.

Melinda Goodin has compiled the sales information from Locus into a spreadsheet. Useful if you want to check which authors sold what to which editor via which agent etc.

Recent readings:

M.J. Rose questions whether blogs are an effective promotional technique.

Rachel Vater has been discussing the perils of writing in more than one genre, here and here.

On LJ, Shadawyn wrote an essay on the danger of being prolific. She says that when a person who had been easily writing 2,000+ words a day suddenly can’t write that many, it’s hard to accept that writing only 500 a day might be ok, even while cheering on other people who are writing more slowly than oneself.

I’m not sure that’s only a problem for prolific writers. (I’ve never been that fast, though, so maybe it is.) Even those of us with smaller goals can suddenly find ourselves unable to meet them. Right now I’m struggling to accept that my current goal — do something, anything every day — is worth bothering with, when 10+ hours a week used to be normal.

But I can’t do 10 hours a week right now, because those 10 hours don’t exist.
I guess my point is that all of us need to set reasonable goals and remember that things change. And if we suddenly can’t write 750 words a day anymore, to do what we can and stop fretting, which is easier said than done.

JA Konrath on Talent and Craft, Luck and Persistance
I don’t really see the point in thinking about talent and luck, since I can’t do anything about them. It still comes down to learning how to write better, and keeping on writing.

Via , Hal Duncan’s response to the 10 things learned about writing meme.
I think he wins the meme.

I was going to do that meme, but I’m not up to 10 things yet. So far:
1. Books are written by people, and not just dead ones.
2. Drafts don’t need to be anywhere near perfect the first time, nor do they need outlines or calendars or maps or anything else.
3. Beta readers can only read the book, not my mind.

It’s that last one that gives me the most trouble.

ETA: (I *knew* there was a third thing to link to, I just couldn’t remember what)
Via , Some “advice” to the unpublished
I think I read that before, but it’s still good.

Recently a bunch of people have been discussing critiquing. ( asks about best and worst experiences, on family and friends as critiquers, on brutal honesty)

There are a lot of guidelines out there, but I thought I’d make up a few of my own. Thoughts?

CRITIQUING:

1. Engage your reading comprehension.
Cat people may or may not be the epitome of cliche, but if the novel in question has no cat people, commenting on them makes you look like an idiot. Especially if that’s the entire content of your critique.

2. Don’t blast the entire premise.
Just because you think that magic and technology can’t coexist, or that all of magic can’t be trapped by an evil sorcerer, doesn’t make it true. If it isn’t believable to you, try to figure out why. Specific complaints may help the author anchor her setting better.

3a. Don’t ask people if English is their first language.
It’s rude and insulting. (Or hilarious, if the writer in question makes a living by writing in English, and you’ve already demonstrated a lack of ability to tell adjectives from nouns.) Instead, make specific corrections, either in line edits or by pointing out a few things the writer consistently does wrong.

3b. British spelling is not wrong when done consistently.
If you’re a USian in an international group and you see odd uses of “u” and “s”, think before you “correct” it.

4. Don’t complain about the genre.
If you only read and write hard science fiction short stories, and you decide to critique a fantasy novel, try to rein in your personal distate for the genre’s conventions. If you can’t, find something else to critique.

BEING CRITIQUED:

1. Don’t immediately ignore the supposed idiots.
Did several people draw the same erroneous conclusion? Maybe you’re giving the reader too little detail, or the wrong detail. Maybe the non-catlike species needs to be better described. Maybe your setting could be more solid.

2. Consider the source.
Has the critiquer been helpful in the past, or elsewhere in this critique, or to other people? Or does he write bizarre and useless comments to everyone?

3. Remember you aren’t perfect.
Did you forget to run spellcheck? Skip proofreading for typos that spellcheck missed? Did you notice an awkward phrase and decide to leave it, since you’ll be revising later anyway? Use the same awkward phrase twice because you were too lazy to rewrite one short paragraph?