Random Stuff:
- How cool is it that one of RMFW’s critique groups publishes short story anthologies? The members of the Speculative Fiction Critique Group help each other with improving their craft, but are also learning about the whole publishing process. The latest anthology is called “Second Law” (published in December 2021). Ralph Beckett, who writes as RC Beckett, talks about the whole project on the Rocky Mountain Writer podcast. Audio here. Video here.
- Editing tip #1:
- Delete the weakest word from every sentence.
- Delete the weakest sentence from every paragraph.
- Delete the weakest paragraph from every two pages.
- Delete sections where nothing is happening.
- Yeah, nothing.
- Where the story isn’t going anywhere.
- Where the reader is treading water.
- Where you’re repeating stuff that’s already been covered.
- Does it all feel better? More direct? Cleaner? More straightforward?
- Editing tip #2: Hunt down and destroy every instance of the word “seem.” If everything seems to be this or that, readers will get the feeling they are not in a world full of specifics.
- Emily St. John Mandel (Station Eleven; yeah her) started out as a crime writer and didn’t want to get pigeon-holed. Great profile in the New Yorker here.
- A Twitter guy I follow (@Jimthomsen) alerted me to the cliches and tropes of Overwrought Reaction Beats. You know—so and so gasped, so and so froze. Etcetera. Watch out for them. Fix them. Here’s a piece about writing that deals with the issue. There are probably many ways to fix this issue—or avoid the problem altogether.
- “What do you mean, ‘Write what I know’? Are you telling me Andy Weir went to Mars before writing The Martian?” Excellent piece in The Medium here.
- And another one: 12 Sentences No AI Could Ever Hope to Write. Here.
Category: Blog