Category: Writing

Let’s try to do this as spoiler-free as possible. A gutpunch is pretty much the opposite of a cliffhanger. It’s a one-liner or short action in a story that turns the entire thing on its head. Many science fiction shorts are built on gutpunches – Arthur C. Clarke’s classic two pager “Reunion” being one where…

Yet another novel hijacked by a character who thought of something better. 17k words in, and all of the careful planning that got me to this point is out the window. The original plot is basically gone from this point on. Not complaining – this is better, despite the extra effort I’m going to need…

Somebody asked that question, and it’s a good one. 1) Nanotechnology/”gray goo” I do write human wave sf. I can see the nanotech apocalypse maybe happening, but of the stories I’ve read, few of them have been interesting. Hivemind, lack of motivation, lack of emotions, lack of values, and the way they approach every problem…

One thing I should try and make clear to you, the reader, is what my author’s brand is about. First and foremost, I want to entertain you. I will happily give up everything else in order to entertain. If you don’t come away from the book with a sense of “That was fun!” and wanting…

I do outline. Not as thoroughly or obsessively as some, but I do have character sketches and a firm idea of where the story is going and the significant events on the way before I start writing. And then, partway through the writing process, one of the characters stands up and says to me, “I…

Today’s first assignment is to share a writing tip Mine is always to be working on more than one story idea. Especially as I seem to habitually write novel length stuff, rather than shorter stories. I have roughly ten to fifteen fiction ideas in folders of their own being developed, right now. Any time I…

Praxeology is the deduction of what someone wants from their actions. It’s actually highly relevant to author skills – I use it constantly. Praxeology has very little to do with what someone says. Most folks in most things have a public agenda and a real (private) agenda. They’ll say what supports their public agenda, but…

One thing I should try and make clear to you, the reader, is what my author’s brand is about. First and foremost, I want to entertain you. I will happily give up everything else in order to entertain. If you don’t come away from the book with a sense of “That was fun!” and wanting…

and you notice something they could do to blow your plotline up, do you 1) Ignore it and hope people don’t notice because what you want to do is cool 2) Paper it over with some nonsense nobody is really going to believe and proceed. Because cool or 3) Fix it and come up with…

Trying to write sf about exploring a few nearby stars. Apparently, the mechanics of Tau Ceti are reasonably nailed down, with five planets deduced from data of the star. It had to be a lot easier fictionalizing planets of nearby stars before the bleeping astronomers could actually find them!