Giveaway titles
Say you've written a story in which a driver picks up a mysterious hitchhiker, and in the end there's a...
Archive for Writing
Writing challenge/exercise: long titles
Not sure what to write next? Here's a challenge: Come up with a title that's at least seven words long...
Throwing in the hat
The discussion has taken its toll, and I've decided: I'm declaring myself to be a write-in candidate for the SFWA...
Women on the Hugo ballot
As has been widely noted, on this year's Hugo ballot there's only one work by a woman among the twenty...
Pirate antho deadline imminent
I've been meaning to post for months about Ann and Jeff VanderMeer's forthcoming pirate anthology, Fast Ships, Black Sails, but...
Separating form from content
Some thoughts on form, style, and content, in various kinds of writing.
Double spacing
During the past year, three different authors have submitted stories to us in which there were two spaces after every...
What do you want in a writing tool?
I've been asked to relay the following question to y'all writers: What would you want in the ultimate writer tool?...
Genre conventions
I read some romance recently--a Crusie novel (reissue) I hadn't previously encountered, and then a set of three novellas by...
Items: Writing advice
In the past few days, I keep coming across various items of advice and commentary about writing. (The focus here...
Unusual points of view
Some notes on point-of-view handling in works by three authors: One idiosyncrasy of H. Beam Piper's writing, at least in the...
Posting stories online before publication
I'm pretty sure most of y'all regular readers know this, but I figure it can't hurt to say it again...