http://www.sfnovelists.com A mutual support group for SF/F Novelists Thu, 18 Mar 2010 15:07:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en You can only do as much as you can do, and there's no point beating yourself up over the fact. Two years ago yesterday my grandmother died. She was a wonderful woman and the person most responsible for me making it through to adulthood relatively intact. For reasons I'm not going ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/03/18/writing-grief-and-stress/ Have you ever noticed how when the shit of your life hits the fan, that everything else in the world keeps going? Other people's lives don't stop and drop everything because yours does? I'm reminded of this now, as the my proverbial fan whirls. As I write this, I'm getting ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/03/17/and-so-it-goes/ Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there was a girl who wanted to be a knight. (Or a wizard, or whatever.) But girls weren't allowed to be knights, so she disguised herself as a boy (or strongarmed the king into letting her try, or whatever), and ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/03/16/first-girl-ever/  I’m being a bit disingenuous.  Some of what you write has to be what you know.  Compelling characters are difficult to write without at least some life experience.  I would argue, however, that what you know should be the internal story, not the plot.  Or the setting, either.  For most of ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/03/15/write-what-you-don%e2%80%99t-know/   Depending on what writing bible you follow, there are only 3 real plots in the universe - or 12, or 37, or ONE. It doesn't matter what the number is,  so long as you realize that the basic idea is distilling EVERY book into its constituent parts   If you do ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/03/05/are-you-enjoying-the-journey/ Last week, I finished a proposal for a new book, and I sent it off to its prospective editor. Last week, I picked up my work-in-progress, BITE AFTER BITE, and I wrote a few thousand words in a new chapter. Those  two sentences were very easy to type, but they don't begin ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/03/01/cleansing-the-palate/ Agent - Reviews the contracts to eliminate unfavorable clauses and protect the author's interests, allowing the author to relax and enjoy the experience of being published.  In the relationship model of publishing, the agent is the condom.* Censorship - The suppression of speech, generally by the government or others with authority.  China's ongoing efforts to ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/02/24/writing-terms-defined/ Sometimes posts are easier to write than others. There are times when a subject for a post presents itself with such force that it really does -- pardon the cliché -- write itself. And then there are days like today. It’s rainy and cold outside, I have some very nice jazz ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/02/23/how-i-know-im-a-writer/ It used to be that women in stories were incompetent.  Their only jobs were to a) look pretty and b) make the hero look good. (Even the villainesses.) They got in trouble so the hero could rescue them; they asked dumb questions so the hero could demonstrate his ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/02/16/emasculation-not-required/ There’s been a lot of ranting back and forth lately about the Amazon/Macmillan fiasco of a couple of weeks back, and I thought I’d take a moment to make clear what I thought (and what I believe a lot of other authors thought) about the whole thing.  First of all, it ... http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/02/15/one-writer%e2%80%99s-take-on-amazonfail/