Tag: writing

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.

See all of my WSF&F chapter reviews.

This chapter is by Stanley Schmidt, an American author best known for his long-running tenure as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. He uses his editorial experience to explain the maxim “show, don’t tell” with practical examples.

This is something really cool: A writing workshop hosted by an actual working quantum physics lab. I applied back in March, and the acceptance emails were scheduled to go out around the beginning of April. I had started to wonder if it was still going to happen. The website hasn’t been updated and I hadn’t received word of either acceptance or rejection.

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

I was actually surprised at how much I got done this week. I took a whole day to sort out my taxes, but they’re done and filed. Every time look at the calendar now, I sigh with relief.

I do all my writing in Ulysses. I also like to keep all of my files in its library. Since I started using it, the idea of having individual files scattered about my computer is just plain barbaric. The cost of this trade off is that if Ulysses doesn’t support a feature, I have to add raw HTML into the files. Normally this isn’t much of a problem. A bit HTML set off with ~~ isn’t distracting.

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.

See all of my WSF&F chapter reviews.

In this chapter James Patrick Kelly discusses science fiction characters and how to build them. He starts this chapter with a discussion of writing books he’s bought in the past. Then he dives in.

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

The week was about increasing my activity levels. And the little exercise I did really drove the point home about how out-of-shape I am. The last part of the week was the worst. I hope I start to feel better.

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.

This is Isaac Asimov’s second of five chapters in the book. As a writer of books that are mostly dialog, when he thinks “of the art of writing I tend to think of dialog.” His first example is a look back at Victorian dialog. When compared to modern language it seems silted and overwrought. But written dialog is not a perfect example of the spoken language of the time. Just as movies tend to feature better-than-average looking people, dialog does the same to language. Asimov’s example is that movie stars don’t look like average people. They look like movie stars. Also, fictional heroes are braver, stronger, and more ingenious “than anyone you’re likely to meet. Why shouldn’t they speak better too?” At the same time the characters need to sound like people, not pompous stuffed-shirts. Sometimes the well-placed ungrammatical exclamation is exactly what’s needed to humanize a character. He cites Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn as the first example of a book written in substandard English. But it is still a great work of literature. While the words were mostly slang, the sentences and paragraphs were the work of a master. Asimov as most writers, draw the line at vulgarity. His position is that his characters are well-educated and should be able to express themselves better than a profanity-spewing fire hose. He notes times have changed and it’s expected that some profanity will creep into almost any novel. In some cases it would be criminal to not have characters swear. Asimov works hard to avoid it, but he realizes that other authors have other styles. This was another short chapter, having just under five pages. Even with it being so short it was still packed with advice:

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.

See all of my WSF&F chapter reviews.

This chapter was written by Isaac Asimov. It is the first of five that he contributed to the book. It’s short—only five pages—but covers the essentials of plotting a story.

It’s time for my weekly word count check-in. At the end of every week, I post a screen shot from my writing results spreadsheet. This shows the current week and the three before. My week starts on Monday. The numbers are current through Sunday night. I also only average over six days. This allows me one day of no writing that doesn’t impact the weekly totals.

This week started out strong, but I was hit with intense shoulder pain that sidelined me for the weekend. Goals for the next week: finish the WIP chapter of the ruby book, and do three chapter reviews of the WSF&F book.

Sometimes I run across an older book that’s usually out-of-print, but has exceptional wisdom locked up in its pages. I found this one at my local Half Priced Books.

See all of my WSF&F chapter reviews.

Chapter two is much longer than Heinlein’s chapter one, but covers more ground. It’s written by Gardener Dozois, and names the mistakes that plague writers new to science fiction. He starts out with a discussion of 1950s syndrome.