I’m going to be presenting a month-long workshop in August at Savvy Authors. The title is “Bringing New Worlds to Life in Science Fiction and Fantasy.” It began as an expansion of my World Building workshop, but it has morphed into quite a bit more than that. When I started brainstorming, it didn’t take long […]
Category Archives: Tips for Writers
Creativity
I’ve decided to do a new series of blog posts on creativity. So far, it’s a work in progress, but I thought I’d share something I have learned recently to get the ball rolling. In November of 2008, I finished “The Immortality Virus” and had no idea what I wanted to do next. I had […]
Write What You Know
There’s an age-old bit of writing advice that goes “Write what you know.” I’m going to turn it on its head and suggest that rather than writing what you know, you should know what you write. The difference is subtle but important. If you only write what you know, your stories are truly limited. Maybe […]
New Short Story in Aoife’s Kiss
A short story I wrote many, many years ago has finally seen print this month! “Betrayal” was the audition story I wrote for Orson Scott Card’s Boot Camp in 2003. Since Boot Camp was such an awesome experience for me, this story has some sentimental value for me and I am thrilled to finally see […]
Show, Don’t Tell
You’ve probably heard it before, but I want to share a recent reminder of how important it is to, “Show. Don’t Tell!” This past weekend my husband and I watched the miniseries that began the first season of “Battlestar Galactica.” A number of our friends enjoy the show and as science fiction fans, we decided […]
Evoking Emotion
When I write, I do not simply want my reader to know how my characters are feeling; I want them to feel that way, too. I want them to share in the joys and pains, the triumphs and defeats. The way I do this is through a specific application of the old advice, “Show, don’t […]
Writer’s Block
After finishing the Immortality Virus I planned on moving on to a new rough draft — Born of Two Worlds. Instead, I suffered 3 months of pure, agonizing writer’s block. I couldn’t force myself to put a single word on the page.I don’t want to get into a long discussion of writer’s block today. There […]
Being
There are some who, to varying degrees, suggest eliminating being verbs from your prose. Since being is such a pivotal part of our language, a building block really, why would anyone suggest such a thing? This is one of those “so-called rules of writing” that I mentioned in a previous article. In other words, there […]
The So-Called Rules of Writing
This article is my word of caution: take any writing advice, including mine, with a grain of salt. There are no rules; there are only actions and consequences. Educate yourself on the consequences so you know which actions are worth taking. Like many of you, I have been writing since I was a child. I […]
Relevant Description
One of the most common questions I hear from new writers is: “How much description should I use?” The truth is, that’s the wrong question. Your story may require a ton of description or almost none at all. The question should be: What type of description should I use? The answer: relevant description. Imagine that […]