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Happy May 1st! "Hal-an-tow, jolly rumbelow, We were out long before the day-o, To welcome in the summertime To welcome in the May-o, Summer is a-coming in, And winter's gone away." - Halston Morris Dance

submitted 12 hours ago • 0 comments

when writers express an opinion about how to write,they're often explaining how they would do it, and mistaking their personal preference for a universal truth. #writing

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I don't use character sheets full of details I'll never use. I start with: - what impression do they make? - how do they move? - how do they talk? The rest evolves as I write & discover what the story needs. #characters #writing

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Jagmeet Singh: A practicing Sikh with an Ontario accent. You can't get more Canadian than that.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

There are times to slow the pace, yes. But if chapter doesn't interest readers in some way, it needs to be replotted. And no, that's not easy. Only necessary. #writing

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Every book that is memorable demonstrates at least one best practice -- some technique or approach that usually works. You can learn best practices on your own, but seeing an example of what works is a shortcut to knowledge. Although sometimes, of course, you may decide the practice is not for you.

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

I went through 38 titles for my WIP. Then my critique partner suggested the perfect choice -- on the third try! #writing

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Description works best when it's woven into the action. That's why short, carefully chosen details usually work best. Long descriptions are more likely to slow or stop the narrative altogether. #writing

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

It never fails. Just when I start to think I'll never figure what to write next, a revelation arrives.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Anyone who thinks fiction written by AI is adequate is an unskilled hack. #AI

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

The advantage of first publishing as a poet is my ability to create atmosphere. The disadvantage is that when I create atmosphere, I'm prone to forget about pacing and tension.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Comp titles for a query is a tradition inherited from the film industry. More often than not, they're misleading,and often too obscure to be much use. At best, they show how well you know your genre, which may not demonstrate your writing ability. #querying #comps

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

AI 's weakness is emergent qualities. It can mimic concrete characteristics like sentence length, but not aspects of writing like pacing or characterization that are non-localized. Partly, its developers share this blindness, and partly emergent qualities are simply too complex for it. #AI

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Essays and other non-fiction argue and preach. Fiction explores, its positions coming out in the drama. #writing

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

Is a short or long description best? Neither. I aim for an evocative description. Often, that's a metaphor.

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Even my earliest works have occasional phrases, even the occasional paragraph that is bang on. Unfortunately, it has far more junk passages. The challenge has always been to writer fewer junk passages (and perhaps always will be). #writing

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

A flashback can be an inelegant info dump, or serve other purposes by being accompanied by audience reactions that build character or being full of details that add atmosphere. Even its position can alter its effectiveness#writing #flashbacks

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Remember when in school you were asked to write an essay and an outline -- and wrote the outline last? That should tell you something about your writing habits. #writing

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Sometimes, a single word can be the difference between nearly right and perfection.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

Does swearing indicate a poor vocabulary? Sort of, but not in the dismissive way some people claim. The whole point of swearing is to express yourself when you don't have time or inclination to be original.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

My feelings about roleplaying are mixed. Like many writers, DMing led me to fiction. However, many who took the same route fail to understand the differences between fiction-writing & storytelling in which characters are developed by players, the background by someone else, & the plot by the group.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

An initial idea that seems complete in itself is likely to be suitable for a shorter story at the most. Try to expand it, & you may be stuck. By contrast, an idea that leads to lots of possibilities is more likely to have novel or series potential. #writing

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Army hierarchies are one of the most common pieces of world-building undertaken by beginning writers (the other is calendars). However, before you spend too much time on such things, ask yourself if such details enhance the story and are really worth spending much time on. #writing #worldbuilding

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Some of my favorite scenes are ones of suppressed emotions. For instance, lovers saying good-bye but trying to suppress their fears. The unspoken adds tension, even poignancy. #writing

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

You can do so much with chapter titles. For instance, you can tantalize readers, add perspectives to the chapter, and play games like adding multiple references to the title in the text. #writing #chapter_titles

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

I use chapter titles.Only numbering chapters throws away another chance to engage with readers. #writing

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The purpose of world-building is to inspire original plot lines and details. #writing #fantasy

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Not only is "writing journey" a cliche, but it sounds (at least to me) like a hobby that isn't pursued too seriously. In my experience, career writers usually strike a more serious tone about their development and accomplishments. That is, when the talk about such things at all,

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

Revision is more than words and sentences. It's also about making connections, so your story is more of a unified whole. #writing

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Using AI deprives you of the struggle of outlining, which is a creative act in itself. #AI

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

A certain type of Indie writer seems to think that their style is rare and precious, and that keeping it unaltered shows integrity. Unfortunately, there is nothing rare or precious about unskilled writing, and that type of integrity is self-handicapping. #writing

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Using AI to generate idea is not your own creative thinking. It's the artistic equivalent of stolen valor. #AI

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Someone asked where to find my book! I hated to tell them it wasn't out yet. #writing

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

The only drawback to repositioning a scene because it fits so well elsewhere is that there's a gap where fresh copy is needed. #writing

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

Fun with titles: see how many ways you can make the title apply to the story.

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

A truly skilled writer is humble in the best sense of the word: They know how good they are, but also their weaknesses. They don't mistake their ego for their work,.. and get on with their work rather than boasting.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

According to an old saying, what was fascinating about a dancing bear was not that it danced well, but that it danced at all. The same goes for fiction-writing with AI. #AI

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Writing lessons I'm still learning: 1. When too much detail wrecks the pace 2. When understatement should not be used. @writing

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

When I first thought of The Bone Ransom, I resisted a female mc because people might object to a male writer making that choice. However, her back story is ideal for a novel. Do you think I would be less likely to receive that criticism automatically today?

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

Before anyone gets too exited but engineered dire wolfs, www.scientificamerican.com/article/dire...

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Anti-AI defenses are behind AI, but they are coming. My favorite randomly defaces images harvested by AI. A decade from now, Anti-AI defenses will be as common as anti-viruses today. #AI

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

I spend as little effort as possible on outlines. For me, energy give to an outline is energy taken from writing. If I take too much, I lose interest in writing. Besides, my stories evolve , so too much time outlining is at best a wasted effort. #writing

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Want your book to be relevant? To address the issues? Great! So dramatize. Explore. Show multiple viewpoints. Make characters fully-rounded, not caricatures. Guide readers to the conclusions you want. But never preach. Never be trite. Never preach or stoop to allegory. #writing #socialcriticism

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

I've reached such a degree of familiarity with my characters that I immediately know whether they'd say a certain word or line, and if not what they would say instead, purely by instinct. #writing

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Fiction gets its point across by dramatizing issues, not by preaching. You want to argue a position, write an essay. #writing

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments