A little bit of background on why I am working on understanding the opening of The Girl with All the Gifts. In my neverending work to improve the craft of writing and my understanding of storytelling, I’ve been focusing on what makes a good opening for a story. I am trying to figure out what makes a good opening, what is the experience for the reader, and what can I learn as a writer. So, in … [Read more...]
I’m done with being a writer
For years, I've wanted to be a writer. And I've worked at honing my craft. Writing better sentences. Cleaning up my prose. Strengthening my descriptions. But that's not enough. I don't want to be a better writer. I want to be a better story teller. Save Save Save … [Read more...]
Top exercises to counter sitting all day for writers – Part 1
We've all heard the news. Sitting is going to kill us. And as writers, we've all been told that the key to success is to sit your ass down and write. So, are we writing ourselves to death? Problems with sitting too much Sitting too long, or generally doing anything for too long a time, is not good for our health. (Hopefully no one has done any studies on napping.) Some of the … [Read more...]
The Trouble with Trilogies
Fantasy literature is defined by trilogies. This was probably directly a result of Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings, a formative cornerstone of the genre. But I've been having a problem with trilogies I've been reading lately: nothing happens in the first book. Trilogies and Fantasy Tolkein's famous series was never meant to be a trilogy. He wrote it as a single work but his publisher for … [Read more...]
All black in a sea of white
My daughter spent the afternoon sharing her adventures from a teen camp at a yoga retreat... ...getting bit by a fire ant while shooting a rifle. ...hair caught in a belay while rappelling down a cliff. ...kids bursting out in laughter during silent meditation. One story struck a note with me since it ties into something I've been thinking about lately in my writing - and that's … [Read more...]
I swear I wasn’t just lying around the beach
All has been pretty quiet on the blog front recently. And while a number of you may be aware that I spent the holidays on the warm sands and in the warmer seas of Mexico, I have not just been relaxing since my last post. These past six weeks or so, I have been working hard on editing my upcoming science fiction novel with the goal of submitting the first 10,000 words to the open … [Read more...]
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