Categotry Archives: Writing Life
"I Know What I Like"
Editors and Agents are constantly answering the question “What are you looking for?” with some variation on “A really good book.” This is, of course, the ultimate truth. No editor or agent wants to put the effort into a project they don’t like. It is such an obvious truth that it is of no use whatsoever to the average writer. The problem is that we are all human. Editors, agents, writers, publishers, readers, everyone involved with the publishing industry has […]
Out To Lunch
I’m in my writing cave today. With any luck I will force myself past a really stupid blockage and be sociable gain later today. Alice
Why Is "Because I Like It" a Valid Point in Judging Fiction?
Per usual I am busy judging for an RWA contest and voting in FanLit Forever at the same time. In Challenge 2 it was the Golden Heart. This round it’s The Lauries hosted by From The Heart Romance Writers. It really brings to mind some basic differences. For one thing, the RWA contest try to counteract personal biases. You are supposed to score based on the quality of the writing rather than whether or not you personally like it. Tastes […]
Wanna Be and Gunna Be
Force of habit, I guess, but I find myself talking about writing a lot, even if there’s no round up. *grin* You all know what a wanna be is, right? The first time I heard the phrase was in reference to white people attending a pow wow. Some of them wanted to be Indian. My half-breed friend didn’t think much of them. So I always thought a wanna be was not something I ever wanted to be. The first I’d […]
Drumming
I play hand drums. Conga, ashiko, djembe, djum djum <yes I know it’s not technically a hand drum>, I’ve even tried my hand at bongos, talking drum, water drums, baudran, and Native American style flat drums. I’m not particularly proficient at any of them, but I know 6 hand positions for conga, three or four songs, and am reasonably comfortable with 6/8 time. I can handle most drummer’s circles without embarrassing myself. Drumming in a circle has a certain magic. […]
No More Wednesday Roundup For Writers.
The whole reason I started doing my little how to write mini lecture series was to accommodate May’s Wednesday Roundup in which she did links to about a dozen writers who all offered their suggestions on how to write. May no longer does that. Which means I can happily step down from my little soap box and stop doing these how-to write blogs. Seriously, considering that I am not a published author, I feel a bit silly offering advice. This […]
How much SHOULD you let other writers influence you?
Clearly you don’t want to give up your own idea of a story in order to accommodate another writer’s idea. If you’re willing to do that then you might as well go around doing all the stories that non-writers perpetually offer to writers. “You know what you should write? You should write about my grandfather <or other relative, friend, favorite pet, or self> who <insert long boring monolog>.” But it really helps to get some feedback, and sometimes that feedback […]
Validation. Who are you writing for?
Yesterday Sara made a commented on her blog about how silly the need for complements from other writers. I adamantly disagree. I’ve said it before and I’ll no doubt say it again. Writing for yourself is like playing tennis with a wall. There’s a kind of satisfaction on a primal level that comes from the feel of the ball hitting the racket, the success of having caused the ball to leave your control then return to it as it bounces […]
PUN-ishment
I had a couple of friends in high school who enjoyed puns. They would spend minutes, if not hours, competing with one another, trying to come up with puns. Silliest pun, strangest pun, simplest pun, or best of all worst pun, they got into it. These sessions were often referred to as pun-ishment. The thing about this kind of punning around is that you have to have a certain sensibility to do it. It isn’t enough to have a twisted […]
Just Do It
I used to hate Nike ads that use the line. Just do it? Like anything is really that easy. Just do it could have me diving off bridges, slogging through the everglades, and generally out breaking my neck. But when it comes to writing, there’s a lot to be said for “just do it.” Now and then I will run across writers who desperately want to find an easy out. They want rough drafts to come out perfectly polished. They […]
What Was Your First Romance Novel?
This seems to keep coming up, so I guess I’ll try to come up with an answer. I have no idea what the title or author of my first Romance novel was. I was in high school and hanging out with a girl who was addicted to Harlequins. Out of curiosity I asked her which was her favorite and why. She couldn’t tell me. Apparently she never looked at the title, only the number. She leant me one of her […]
Welcome Christina!
Christina, a veteran of Avon FanLit, has entered the blogosphere. She can be found at http://fairiegreen.wordpress.com/. She’s a little nervous about it right now, but if you remember her from Avon or know her from FanLit Forever, drop by. Alice
Fiction Fright
I plan on posting an ongoing story here every Friday. I figure once a week you all can put up with me. So I opened up the file in which resides the story I’d planned on using, and got serious cold feet. It isn’t that the story is so bad, though it was written many years ago and does not reflect where I am in my writing now. It simply isn’t what I want to say here. The story came […]
Critiquing Rant
If there’s one thing I’ve done a lot of over the years, it’s critiquing. I have come to the conclusion that most of the time when someone does a poor job of it, they simply don’t know how to go about it. In my experience, the most valuable thing a critiquer can do is simply write down how they react to the story as they are going along. Something confusing comes up? Say so. Don’t like the hero? Tell the […]
