I’ve made the point before that dissecting trade journals, studying and diagramming the latest trends in the fiction market, and trying to target your work to whatever is currently hot in the industry is the quickest way to drive yourself insane – even if you can churn out a bestseller in a matter of months…
Tag: reading
Unstructured Narrative
Many writers have experimented with non-standard, or unstructured narrative styles. Some to varying but undeniable degrees of success – some mixing reality and fancy like Hunter S. Thompson, others displaying a non-linear narrative like Kurt Vonnegut, still others jumbling everything up in what can be argued to have no sense whatsoever but an irresistible rhythm…
The Immediacy of Action
Writing an action sequence is a unique part of writing. All of the rest of writing—setting a scene, establishing a character, revealing an epiphany, etc.—are all different as well. But they are clear siblings of each other. Action stands apart from all the others as much as a raven sitting on a wire amidst blue…
More Notes on Discoverability
Last month I attended the Nebula Awards for the second time in my life. Last year I discovered that I had no idea who most of the nominees were. This year, while I knew more of them, I still didn’t know a significant number. My personal relationship with storytelling explains a great deal, most notably…
Scraping Your Plate
When I first signed my book with a small press, I knew I was being slingshotted into fame. When it did not happen, I blamed myself, my marketing efforts, even my talent for not becoming an overnight sensation. The duty to get my name out there sapped all joy I once found in crafting a…