Archive for the 'reading' Category
May 31st 2011
The Skill List Project: Viewpoint Selectivity
This is another post in The Skill List Project: an attempt to list all the skills involved in writing and selling fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy. Last time around, we talked about Viewpoint and Story Experience…but since I consider viewpoint to be the #1 key to story success, I want to dig into it [...]
March 25th 2011
The Skill List Project: Reading Analytically
This is another post in The Skill List Project: an attempt to list all the skills involved in writing and selling fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy. Last time around, we talked about Reading judiciously. At the end of that posting, I made the rash promise to show “judicious reading” in action: I’d pull apart [...]
February 25th 2011
The Skill List Project: Reading Judiciously
This is another post in The Skill List Project: an attempt to list all the skills involved in writing and selling fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy. Last time around, we talked about Reading Voraciously. This time around, we’ll look at reading judiciously: the skill of reading in order to learn from other writers. Reading [...]
January 20th 2011
The Skill List Project: Reading Voraciously
This is another post in The Skill List Project: an attempt to list all the skills involved in writing and selling fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy. This time around, we’re looking at the hugely important skill of reading voraciously—reading widely in order to expand your horizons. Reading For the Love of It From time [...]
January 5th 2011
“The Plot Escapes Me”
There have been a number of write-ups of late discussing style vs. content – the WAY a book is written as opposed to what’s actually IN it. There was an article in the Books section of the New York Times – I’d link to it but I only have the body of the article (which [...]
November 25th 2010
The Skill List Project: Learning to Love Grammar
This is another blog post in The Skill List Project: an attempt to list the skills involved in writing and selling fiction, particularly science fiction and fantasy. This time around, we’re looking at another fundamental building-block of writing: grammar. Making Sense Grammar prevents you from tripping over your own feet. The point of grammar is [...]
September 28th 2010
Bones, flesh and clothes: research and the research-heavy story
And now for something completely different… I’ve been asked recently how I tackle research: what I look for and how I use it. Accordingly, here is a post about my research process and how I use it in a typical, research-heavy story (your mileage, of course, may vary; though I believe some of the stuff [...]
July 28th 2010
Narrative, Resonance and Genre
One thing I was often told when I was starting out as a writer was that story trumped everything, that a good story would always resonate because good stories were universal. Now, I’m always suspicious of any sentence that includes “universal”, because all too often what we take for universal is just assumptions so ingrained [...]
June 28th 2010
Traduttore, Traditore: translations, languages and cultures
As someone who writes in one language (English), lives in another (French) on a day-to-day basis, and has some knowledge of a few others (fairly good Spanish, and notions of Vietnamese and Mandarin), I’m always interested in the matter of translating from one language to another. Translation can seem a bit of a dry exercise [...]
May 20th 2010
The Fundamentals
I’m a New York Mets fan. Yes, I know. Thank you. Your expressions of sympathy are much appreciated. But beyond seeking your pity, I bring this up for a reason. Anyone who has watched the Mets play will tell you that they are terrible at the fundamentals. When they’re hitting they swing at bad pitches, [...]
Author Information
James Alan Gardner
James Alan Gardner got his M.Math from the University of Waterloo with a thesis on black holes...and then he immediately started writing science fiction instead. He's been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards, and has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award as well as the Aurora award (twice). He's published seven novels (beginning with "Expendable"), plus a short story collection and (for street cred) a Lara Croft book. He cares deeply about words and sentences, and is working his way up to paragraphs. Visit site.
James Alan Gardner
James Alan Gardner got his M.Math from the University of Waterloo with a thesis on black holes...and then he immediately started writing science fiction instead. He's been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards, and has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award as well as the Aurora award (twice). He's published seven novels (beginning with "Expendable"), plus a short story collection and (for street cred) a Lara Croft book. He cares deeply about words and sentences, and is working his way up to paragraphs. Visit site.
James Alan Gardner
James Alan Gardner got his M.Math from the University of Waterloo with a thesis on black holes...and then he immediately started writing science fiction instead. He's been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards, and has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award as well as the Aurora award (twice). He's published seven novels (beginning with "Expendable"), plus a short story collection and (for street cred) a Lara Croft book. He cares deeply about words and sentences, and is working his way up to paragraphs. Visit site.
James Alan Gardner
James Alan Gardner got his M.Math from the University of Waterloo with a thesis on black holes...and then he immediately started writing science fiction instead. He's been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards, and has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award as well as the Aurora award (twice). He's published seven novels (beginning with "Expendable"), plus a short story collection and (for street cred) a Lara Croft book. He cares deeply about words and sentences, and is working his way up to paragraphs. Visit site.
Alma Alexander
Alma Alexander is a Pacific Northwest novelist whose new YA trilogy, "Worldweavers", debuted with "Gift of the Unmage" in March 2007 ("Spellspam" follows in 2008, and "Cybermage" in 2009). Her other books include the internationally acclaimed "The Secrets of Jin Shei". Visit site.
James Alan Gardner
James Alan Gardner got his M.Math from the University of Waterloo with a thesis on black holes...and then he immediately started writing science fiction instead. He's been a finalist for the Hugo and Nebula awards, and has won the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award as well as the Aurora award (twice). He's published seven novels (beginning with "Expendable"), plus a short story collection and (for street cred) a Lara Croft book. He cares deeply about words and sentences, and is working his way up to paragraphs. Visit site.
Aliette de Bodard
Aliette de Bodard is the author of the upcoming Aztec fantasy Servant of the Underworld, published by Angry Robot. Her short fiction garnered her a nomination for the Campbell Award. She lives in Paris, France. Visit site.
Aliette de Bodard
Aliette de Bodard is the author of the upcoming Aztec fantasy Servant of the Underworld, published by Angry Robot. Her short fiction garnered her a nomination for the Campbell Award. She lives in Paris, France. Visit site.
Aliette de Bodard
Aliette de Bodard is the author of the upcoming Aztec fantasy Servant of the Underworld, published by Angry Robot. Her short fiction garnered her a nomination for the Campbell Award. She lives in Paris, France. Visit site.
David B. Coe
David B. Coe is the author of eleven fantasy novels, including the books of the LonTobyn Chronicle, Winds of the Forelands, and Blood of the Southlands. He has also written the novelization for the Ridley Scott production of ROBIN HOOD, starring Russell Crowe, that is due out in May 2010. In 1999 he received the Crawford Fantasy Award, given annually by the IAFA to the best new author in fantasy. He has a Ph.D. in United States environmental history and lives on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee with his wife and daughters. Visit site.
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