Writers

Hi all… for today’s topic, I’m tapping into my current experience on a story I’m reworking. It was originally a “straight” sci fi story that I wrote maybe 25 years ago. Needless to say, the tech is waaaaay out of date. In my initial update, I brought it up to now, but because this is a future story, I got called on it, and am working out what tech will be like in 10-15 years. But that’s not today’s topic. Today, I’m ruminating and masticating (new word of the day calendar, anyone?) on changing a character from female to male, … Read more

This week, an MM fiction writer who uses several male pen names was unmasked as a woman. This in itself is not a big deal – people write under open names all the time – and there’s a long history of women writing under male names to get their work out there – look at George Elliott. People often establish a separate pen name for other purposes as well – for instance, when an author writes erotica, and then wants to publish something in the YA market. A pen name is a great way to keep the two lines separate. … Read more

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Tammy Jenkins: “cookie cutter characters (LGBTQIA individuals come in all shapes and sizes)”. As a writer, I have a tendency to reach for the familiar – I often write characters who share traits with people I know or have met – it’s a natural thing to do. But sometimes we go beyond this tendency and write characters like others in our given genre. And these can veer pretty easily into tropes. Who hasn’t read an MM story with a handsome, strong, blond and blue-eyed hero? Or the dark haired, dashing bad boy? So my questions … Read more

Sometimes I go through a bit of a dry patch – when I’m not writing, either because of time constraints from work or other obligations, or because I’m just not in the right space. When the latter happens, I usually don’t use it as an excuse not to write – I just shoft gears to a different project that will fire my interest. But also, at these times, I wonder why I write. I mean, I love reading – especially anything sci fi or fantasy. I have since I was in second grade. But I like music too – so … Read more

I’m suffering from a serious case of Writer’s Wait. It’s not quite the same thing as writer’s block. I could write any number of things. But the project I want to write doesn’t feel quite ready to be written. Sure, I could explain this in a number of ways. I just lost my Grandma Hazel, my last connection to that generation in my family – and that has taken an emotional toll. There’s also the time toll – preparing the slide show and the eulogy for the ceremony, the actual time spent flying to Tucson and spent with family. Then … Read more

A few weeks ago, one of our members, Gus Li, posted an article on some of the biggest tropes in Fantasy – including my personal favorite, the Weapon Too Big To Carry. It got me thinking. We all have those things that really bug us as readers – you know, where you just roll your eyes at the writer and say “Really?” And as writers, many of us have our own nervous tics – little things we go back to again and again although we know we shouldn’t. I know one of mine – the mirror trick, when you want … Read more

We’ll be announcing our flash-fiction contest winners in the next few days. I know, we originally planned to give ourselves a month. But we got through them more quickly than expected, and I gotta say, we were quite pleased with the quality of the submissions. Anyhow, the whole thing got me wondering about story length. Flash fiction (or micro fiction, as it is also called), is a particular beast, because it requires the author to edit out all but the barest details, and yet to provide a complete picture with those few words. One of my favorite micro fiction pieces … Read more

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Beth Brock: “How do you write your characters? Do you talk to them? Do they come through you? Or…?” When I write, I usually start with a story idea. Then I sit down to write it, and the character starts to form in my mind, I usually layer in details and history as I go, and over time, I end up with a three-dimensional, unique character. I know that some other writers work differently, planning out the minuscule details of a character before ever putting a pen to paper. Some people write the characters themselves … Read more

Google defines “anti hero” as: “a central character in a story, movie, or drama who lacks conventional heroic attributes.” In practice, this often means a character who is the purported “hero” of the story – the protagonist who carries the arc of the plot – but is often deeply flawed or does bad things. My classic go-to for this one is Thomas Covenant from Stephen Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever – a man with leprosy from our world who is transported to a fantasy world where he is suddenly healed, and, because he doesn’t believe it can … Read more