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Marie Brennan May 16th 2013

You keep using that word

Almost every “how to write” book I’ve ever seen has a section devoted to style. Or sometimes voice. Or sometimes one for each. Frequently with vaporous declarations about it arising from the writer’s soul in some mysterious, half-divine fashion. I have a secret to share. When it comes to this subject, I don’t think we [...]

Marie Brennan April 16th 2013

Noun of Nouns

I wish I were a classical music composer. Or a visual artist — they can get away with it, too. “Third Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Minor.” “Untitled #16.” “Sonata in D.” “Red Four.” Don’t have an actual title? Doesn’t matter! Just call it what it is! Authors aren’t allowed to get away with that. As [...]

Marie Brennan March 16th 2013

Welcome to the Desert of the Real

Sometimes I swear there really is a collective unconscious. I decided in early February that this would be my March post; now, in the last week or so, I’ve come across a groundswell of people discussing the exact same topic: “gritty” fantasy (and gritty fiction in general). I’m talking about the books where the heroes [...]

Marie Brennan February 16th 2013

An Open Letter to the Creators of Sexist Fantasy and Comic Book Art

Dear Creators of Sexist Fantasy and Comic Book Art, This is addressed to those among you drawing and painting (and sometimes sculpting) women with skimpy clothing and bad anatomy and poses no actual human would stand in. I could try to talk to you about the problem of objectifying women, the concept of the male [...]

Marie Brennan January 16th 2013

Out of Step

As you might expect, I frequently get asked, “How’s your next book going?” I invariably answer, “Whose next are we talking about?” Generally people mean their next: the next book they’re going to see on the shelves. But you see, that’s rarely my next. You all are waiting for A Natural History of Dragons to [...]

Marie Brennan December 16th 2012

The End Is Nigh

As some of you may know, next month will see the release of A Memory of Light, the fourteenth (!) and final (!!!) book of Robert Jordan’s series, The Wheel of Time. Jordan passed away several years ago, of course, and the series is being finished by Brandon Sanderson, working from the notes and scenes [...]

S.C. Butler November 15th 2012

The Future of Publishing?

I’ve always liked to describe writing novels as being like playing baseball – you have to do it every day. You can’t depend on inspiration or sudden bursts of energy, you have to just go out and slog through the process as regularly as possible. Some days you’ll strike out four times, other days you’ll [...]

Marie Brennan October 16th 2012

This Wardrobe Closed Until Further Notice

My fellow SF Novelist Rachel Manija Brown posted today about portal fantasies, and why nobody’s buying them. (Quick definition of a portal fantasy: Narnia. Person from our world is transported to another one, has adventures there.) The inciting incident for this is a panel at the Sirens Conference, in which five agents discussed the state [...]

S.C. Butler October 15th 2012

And You Thought Writing Had Nothing to Do With Math

Except it does, in an odd way. Because most long form writing, be it fiction or nonfiction, is storytelling, and much of storytelling is problem solving. And what is one of the best ways to learn how to solve problems? Math. Think about it. Your heroine is trapped in the cellar of an old wineshop [...]

S.C. Butler September 18th 2012

A Hundred Pages About Trees

Does everyone still enjoy Tolkien? I know I do, and almost every fantasy writer I’ve ever heard talk about him seems to as well. Or at least they say they do when his name comes up at cons. But sometimes I wonder if current fantasy readers agree. Recently, while standing in the aisles of The [...]

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