When we are reading, we often remember short phrases or sentences that somehow made something fresh again for us. That captured an image or a feeling vividly. The opposite of that is when we run across the same tired cliche we have heard a thousand times (and yes, I deliberately used a tired cliche toContinueContinue reading “Exorcising Cliche”
Category Archives: writing
Polishing Manuscripts and Catching Errors with Text to Voice
One of the long-known editing tricks is to read the piece you are editing out loud to yourself. It can help you catch wrong words, awkward phrasing, homonyms, repeated words, repeated sentence structures, confusing punctuation, overlong sentences (like this one), etc. However, this can get tedious, and also, you do not always read what isContinueContinue reading “Polishing Manuscripts and Catching Errors with Text to Voice”
Developing Your Writing Toolkit
How do you develop the range or adaptability of your unique writer’s voice? One thing that I have found helpful in making progress in this is – ironically – imitating others. If you were learning to speak another language, and wanted to sound natural you probably would not settle for just ‘being understood’ – justContinueContinue reading “Developing Your Writing Toolkit”
Words Per Day and the First Million Words
New Year is traditionally associated with setting goals and making resolutions. But in a writers group I participate in one of the other writers recently stated they had written 100,000 words last month. This caused some consternation amongst others who compared themselves negatively to it and some even felt this stated achievement was perhaps inflated.ContinueContinue reading “Words Per Day and the First Million Words”
Year In Review 2023
Last year in December I wrote a ‘Year in Review 2022’, the main purpose of which was to convince myself that although I had not published my first novel, nor even got an agent, that I had achieved something in the sphere of writing. As we close out 2023 I thought I would do itContinueContinue reading “Year In Review 2023”
20 Craft Books
I tend to read a lot of craft books. My nature is, when I cannot do something, to study it more intensely till I can. I thought I would list the books I have read this year and give just a one line impression of each. Hopefully, someone finds something here intriguing, and if youContinueContinue reading “20 Craft Books”
Fyrecon
I have attended a few conferences over the last year (Worldcon, Boskone, Readercon) and each have had their unique aspects. This past weekend I had the chance to attend Fyrecon, which was again different and I thought I would write a few thoughts about my experience. To start Fyrecon, though it used to be inContinueContinue reading “Fyrecon”
Rejectomancy
So rejection is such an integral part of any writers life that we must all face it at some point. Most of us, repeatedly, and for a very long time. I already wrote one blog post about not letting it get to you here (and in trying to help you with that, listed some ofContinueContinue reading “Rejectomancy”
To Kill, or Not to Kill. That is the Question
I wrote a short story recently where, to me, it made sense that the main character died at the end. This created a sharp division in opinions amongst my critique circle regarding when and why it is reasonable to kill a main character, and the dissent was so visceral I thought I would write aContinueContinue reading “To Kill, or Not to Kill. That is the Question”
Finding Time to Write
A discussion recently came up in an online writers’ group I take part in about how we each carve out time to write. There were many suggestions. Some people got up an hour early, some stayed up an hour late, some used ‘stolen moments’ of time commuting, some used voice-recognition to increase their efficiency, someContinueContinue reading “Finding Time to Write”
Gideon P. Smith 