We Write!
This weekend I found myself discussing world building and writing with visiting (duct tape) family. One of them is an inveterate world builder. Which is kind of funny, because all the enormously talented young men I know who build words are detailed and sometimes obsessive world builders. This is good and bad. It's good because... Continue Reading →
Alma T. C. Boykin How many of us are blessed with the gift to instantly see what needs to be corrected after we finish a manuscript? Yeah. I'm not either. My habit is to finish the rough-rough draft. Then a day later I go in and fix the last little stuff that I realized I... Continue Reading →
I am not in a hurry to read Neville Shute's ON THE BEACH again. Suicide pills are not my idea of a good ending. There are of course, many great books that don't end 'happily ever after'. Good for them. For me, I like at least a satisfactory end to a book. Real life is... Continue Reading →
So, most of you probably know that last October, Amazon broke the kindle store. I mean, keywording and search has been broken well before that, such that keywording would go cross-categories in places they didn't want it to - so, for example, the same keywords that let a romance author slot her book in military... Continue Reading →
"But Cedar! Formulaic is Bad!" No. No it is not, it's shorthand, more often than not, for you don't like it. Formula is a useful tool, and one most writers are using, even if unconsciously. In fact, to break out of being a formulaic writer, you must understand the formula first, and then deliberately set... Continue Reading →
[--- Karen Myers ---] As often, single-panel comic artists distill the essence of story with admirable skill. They can only succeed with the cooperation of their readers, just like writers of fiction. Is the image above, a single moment, the start of a story (inciting incident)? Is it the mid-point crisis (now everything changes)? Is... Continue Reading →
One of the perils of writing regencies is that I tend to write them while I’m half asleep, so I end up with a lot of somewhat disjointed and contradictory passages that I have to stitch together and massage into some kind of story. In this case, a cozy-ish murder mystery. This can lead to... Continue Reading →
No this is not an anti-religion post. It is rather a post about the accumulation of "scripture" and lists of thou shalt and thou shalt not that accrues to anyone trying to learn the fiction (or even non fiction, but that's different) writing craft. Look, I understand, it's scary out there, and not all of... Continue Reading →
For everything there is a time and a season . . . but unless you are Larry C. or Deadpool™ interrupting a fight scene for a magnificent description of something is not the place for Churchillian eloquence. There are times in which soaring to flights of Latinate rhetorical magnificence is desirable. There are times for... Continue Reading →
At the moment I am listening to audiobooks a fair bit. When one is working with your hands, particularly on fairly undemanding things, they're a great distraction (and yes, I am still needing distraction. Dear bureaucrats...) From the very fast reader who also writes (very slowly) point of view, it has been interesting. You see... Continue Reading →
Mad Genius Club 