business – Page 2 – Gideon P. Smith

Setting SMARTER Writing Goals – Part I

Project management tools can be useful for writers, and help you stay on track. The first step in using these is setting effective goals. There are a number of frameworks that can be used. My preference is the mnemonic S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals, an acronym that stands for: Specific – If you want to target word count,ContinueContinue reading “Setting SMARTER Writing Goals – Part I”

Experimenting with Dictation for Writing

Belonging to writers’ groups there’s always a lot of ideas that are thrown around. One of them is using voice dictation. While I have experimented with this to create fiction, it has never been terribly successful for me. It seems that for fiction at least my voice goes more rapidly than my brain. However, theContinueContinue reading “Experimenting with Dictation for Writing”

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”

READERCON 32

So this past weekend (July 13th to 16th, 2023) I attended ReaderCon! For anyone that doesn’t know, Readercon is a Sci Fi and Fantasy con focussed on the written word, both reading and writing. Unlike many cons, it does not have video games, role-playing game rooms, dress up/costume events, or many of the other thingsContinueContinue reading “READERCON 32”

Dream Agents, Editors, or Publishers

I think many of us would be lying if we did not say we had an idea of how we might want our writing career to go. I don’t just mean Hugo’s and Nebulas, though, why not? I mean down to what publisher you think matches you as your favorite author publishes with them, orContinueContinue reading “Dream Agents, Editors, or Publishers”

You Had me at Halo

So what on Earth is this blog and that title about? It’s about developing a one liner for your novel. Something that you can use as a hook that intrigues, but also informs people what your novel is about. You may never get to use it, but I will say at Chicon I ran intoContinueContinue reading “You Had me at Halo”

Robert A. Heinlein’s 5 Rules of Writing

Back in December, I wrote a blog reviewing and giving my take on Vonnegut’s 8 rules of writing. Today, I thought I would cast a glance over Heinlein’s 5 rules and, as before, add a couple of my own thoughts on each. As a caveat, the distinction of the rules from Vonnegut is that Vonnegut’sContinueContinue reading “Robert A. Heinlein’s 5 Rules of Writing”

Making your first writer’s website: insight from the recently initiated

Having recently made my own writer’s webpage ( gideonpsmith.com ) and having learned a lot from doing so, I thought I would write a blog post about my experience in case it is helpful to anyone else. For anyone not wanting to read the whole blog, I made a helpful summary table at the end,ContinueContinue reading “Making your first writer’s website: insight from the recently initiated”