If I had to name the one thing that made it possible for me to be a published writer, as opposed to just another scribbler with a stack of notebooks in a desk drawer, I would have to say it was the personal computer/printer/word processing software combination. Because in order to become published, you first have to submit stuff to publishers, and if you’re going to submit stuff to publishers you have to put it into a format that publishers will read, which back in those days meant a typed manuscript.
Continue reading “Down (48K) Memory Lane”
Tag: writing
The Second-Hardest Thing
I’m talking about exposition again here. Continue reading “The Second-Hardest Thing”
Sometimes Spellcheck is Not Your Friend
Everybody knows by now to spellcheck their manuscript before they send it out into the wide wide world. What they don’t always know is that for a certain category of problems, spellcheck is not enough. Continue reading “Sometimes Spellcheck is Not Your Friend”
Chicken and Egg
Q: Which is more important, character or plot?
A: Yes.
Or, to put it a bit less obliquely, you can’t really separate the two. Plot, after all, is characters doing things, and one of the ways characters are defined is by what they do and how they do it. I don’t have a grand unified theory of character, but I do have some thoughts on the subject — as what writer does not? — and like most writers who have thoughts, I’m happy to share them.
Continue reading “Chicken and Egg”
Naming Names
“Tell me if this is a stupid question,” my correspondent asked, “but how do you come up with the many different names needed for a story or novel? Is there a secret to making them sound somewhat realistic?”
Continue reading “Naming Names”
Thought for the Day
I’m personally of the opinion that revenge is morally dubious as all hell; but it undeniably makes a great story engine for a piece of fiction. It gives your character a large and important (and possibly dangerous) goal to work toward; it implies an interesting backstory of some variety; it insures that your character is either going to have to get off his duff and do something or at the very least spend some interesting screen time justifying the fact that he isn’t; and it provides lots of hooks on which to hang moral and ethical and social debate if you go in for that sort of thing.
As plot devices go, you can’t beat it with a stick.
A Two-Plot Problem
Most stories have two plots, the internal or emotional plot and the external plot. Which plot is the primary one depends upon the genre and the writer. Continue reading “A Two-Plot Problem”
It Has to Go Somewhere
The question of “embedded exposition” came up again the other day, and I said: Continue reading “It Has to Go Somewhere”
Plotting in Corners
One of the things I like say about plot, on those occasions when I’ve been encouraged to pontificate about such matters, is that in my opinion plot is necessary but it’s not important — that it’s not the story, it’s just the ropes and pegs and tentpoles that make the story into a habitable space and not a flat puddle of metaphorical canvas. Continue reading “Plotting in Corners”
It’s More of a Guideline
Everybody in this business, it seems sometimes, has a set of Rules for Writing that they swear by. In no particular order, then, here’s my own set of ten (bearing in mind that this list, like all such lists, should be regarded as having a bright red In My Opinion Only/This is How it Works for Me sign posted above it in flashing letters): Continue reading “It’s More of a Guideline”
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