If you write Science Fiction or Fantasy, a major part of your work will be the process of world building. You need to carefully set the stage on which your characters will live out their lives. The easy way to do this is to take the shortcut of not being very original (see my blog…
Still drowsy, sipping your morning coffee, you stumble toward your computer as you get ready for a new day. Checking your e-mail, you’re hoping for a note about your story. After all, you joined that writer’s site a few weeks ago and have dutifully read and reviewed a number of posts since then. Your eyes…
Everyone wants feedback on their work – or do they? That might sound like an odd question, but let me tell you a story. When I was in college I once did something really stupid (only once?) and was on the receiving end of some negative feedback from people in the group I hung out…
So here you are, staring at the complete first draft of your novel. What do you do with it? I’ve already told you not to send it to a publisher or post it on-line, so what’s left? Put it aside for a while. Work on something else. I know, this is really difficult to do.…
The First Draft Thing The End As you stare at your computer screen you get this sudden, exhilarating rush of emotion. You’ve done it! You’ve written a novel! Hardly able to contain yourself you want to high-five the world, but instead you just lean back with this stupid grin on your face and read…
One very nice review for my book contained the following comment: “It’s tough to invent a science-fiction universe from scratch, and tougher still to make readers care about the characters in that world. Usually writers pick one, intentionally or not. But the emotional guts of “Agony of the Gods” succeeds in both.” [You can see…
When you’re writing there’s always the choice between the easy description and the difficult one. Media is so pervasive today that almost any idea brings forth an image. If I start describing action on the bridge of a starship, many people will accept very limited description because the mind often jumps to the bridge of…
I’m following up on two previous posts – Great Books and Originality – because the two often flow together, and I thought I’d point out a few examples from the world of Scifi. I recently read through the two volume set from the Library of America, “American Science Fiction.” The editors picked out nine “classic”…
A friend of mine once posed the question: “Do you think writers start out intending to write a great book?” Now, obviously, he meant “great” as in critically acclaimed, and having the potential to still be read long after the author has gone to that great remainder pile in the sky. I thought about it…
So you’ve thumbed through (or scrolled through) your manuscript and you still think it’s great – fine. But what draft is it? If it’s your first, second, or even third draft, try to get as much feedback as possible. This is where a site like Book Country is really important. BookCounty.com got started back in…