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Posts Tagged ‘writing’

The Slow Production of Written Things

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 10, 2015| 1 Comment »

Back in the fall, The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy interviewed Patrick Rothfuss about his new book, The Slow Regard of Silent Things. In it, he touches on the details of his writing process, the likelihood that he revises “more than anyone else in the genre,” why his prose sounds like “dark chocolate,” role-playing games and many other topics.

… because we have the ability to have fantastic plots and armies clashing and magic and dragons, it’s easy to leave out other things and one of the hardest ones to do is language.

If you’re interested in the process of fiction, in Pat’s writing, or in why he thinks you might not want to buy his new book, check out the full transcript now posted by the good folks over at Lightspeed.

* As an added bonus, the interviewer describes fantasy and science fiction as “the imagination Olympics.” So true!

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In Defense of Fantasy

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Ursula Le Guin has an interesting piece up at the Book View Cafe blog about Kazuo Ishiguro’s new novel The Buried Giant. She has issues with specific elements of the book but the part that caught my attention was the reason she felt compelled to write the piece in the first place.

In an interview, Mr. Ishiguro wondered whether his readers would label the book as fantasy. And, as Ms Le Guin says, “It appears that the author takes the word for an insult.” Regardless of Ishiguro’s intentions, this provides Le Guin with a jumping off point for discussion. Her defense of fantasy is concise and compelling.

Fantasy is probably the oldest literary device for talking about reality.

As she lays out the case for fantasy as more than “childish whims,” I am again reminded that the value of imagination lies not in its escape from reality, but in its distillation of significant questions of life and death, purpose and perils, loss and joy. In short, the human experience writ across the universe.

That’s big. I’d better get back to work.

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Mad Scientist Journal

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2015| 2 Comments »

I am happy to announce that I will have a story coming out in the Summer quarterly of Mad Scientist Journal. “Just Like [Illegible] Used to Make” originally appeared in Perihelion Science Fiction, and I’m quite pleased that this story has found another venue.

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Writing Prompt

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2015| Leave a Comment »

I have the urge to post a visual writing prompt. If you’re reaching for creative writing ideas, check out this series of three potentially connected images (is it just me, or is there a lot of post-Apocalyptic quest story coming off of these pictures? :):

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SFWA Welcomes Self-Published and Small Press Authors

Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Interesting news, and a big change for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America:

SFWA Welcomes Self-Published and Small Press Authors!
…the basic standards are $3,000 for novel, or a total of 10,000 words of short fiction paid at 6 cents a word for Active membership.

More information is included in the linked article, and full details will be posted at the SFWA site in March. Given the shifting landscape of publishing and the multitude of ways authors now have to reach an audience, this is great news. If you write and are paid at a professional level, you will be eligible for SFWA membership regardless of venue. All the more reason to keep at it:)

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Truer Words…

Posted in Funny, Likes, Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 3, 2015| Leave a Comment »

 

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From Annihilation to Acceptance

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2015| Leave a Comment »

This week there’s a fascinating piece in The Atlantic by Jeff VanderMeer, author and editor, on the experience of writing:

From Annihilation to Acceptance: A Writer’s Surreal Journey: The author agreed to publish three novels in one year—and then things got weird.

In it, the author details the terrors, trials and triumphs that went into the making of his latest series. Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance make up the Southern Reach trilogy, about “a dysfunctional secret agency called Southern Reach and its efforts to solve the mysteries behind Area X, a strange pristine wilderness.”

I’ve had this series on my books to read list and now plan to bump them up to the top. For more on the books, including sample chapters and links to retailers, or on the author, check out the links above.

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Writers, If You Are Feeling Old…

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 26, 2015| 1 Comment »

Here’s an encouraging article for writers via HuffPost:
New Authors, Fret Not. Most Successful Authors Made Their Mark After 30

The headline sums it up but if this topic interests you it’s worth checking out the attached infographic. It allows you to highlight author age at first published book, at their “breakthrough” book, and also shows a nice timeline of the number of books published before and after death. J.R.R. Tolkien was 46 when The Hobbit was published (also, Nora Roberts is a publishing machine, and I mean that in the best possible way).

So fret not, and keep at it. Because writing well is a skill, and skills take time.

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CC Finlay Named F&SF Editor

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Exciting news via Locus, folks, CC Finlay has been named the new editor at Fantasy & Science Fiction. He succeeds the excellent Gordon Van Gelder, who became the magazine’s editor in 1997 and will continue as publisher.

Will this mean a permanent shift from F&SF’s traditional snail-mail submissions process to e-subs? @ccfinlay sheds some light on the question, and it’s shiny:)

Update: CC Finlay has posted answers to some of our more pressing questions in a new blog post. TL:DR version: e-subs forever! As an international author in favor of increased diversity, this makes me very happy. Also (via Twitter), no simultaneous subs, and currently a minimum 15 days between submissions.

 

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Cleese on Creativity

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 13, 2015| 1 Comment »

There are a lot of books, essays, posts and (no doubt) scratchings on cave walls discussing ways to be more creative. One of the most useful and compact versions I’ve found so far is a talk (via David Farland) by John Cleese, Monty Python funny man and deep thinker on this and other topics.

The video is only ten minutes long but does a terrific job of summarizing the essential requirements one needs to be creative. You don’t have to quit your day job or win a year-long fellowship or even trap your very own Muse. It’s simple really, and not what one might guess when thinking about the problem. We don’t need “more,” we need less. We need boundaries. Specifically, boundaries of time and boundaries of space.

If you’d like to hear Cleese in a longer discussion on the topic, check out his speech from 1991 as well.

Enjoy!

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