Writers

As part of the QueerSciFi.com site, we have a fairly new section where authors can share their WIP’s for critiques – anything from a general “what do you think?” to a more detailed line-by-line edit. But as I start doing more of these critiques, I’m learning (or re-learning) that not everyone agrees on how to do a good critique. I did one critique this last week where the author pointed out after the fact that my use of LOL and “unintentionally funny” could be seen as derogatory to the author and / or their work. While my comments were not … Read more

One of my greatest challenges is sticking to my planned writing times and actually writing for the whole hour I set aside each day for that purpose. The reasons are myriad. My phone buzzes when I get a text or facebook contact. I want to check for new emails I run a little late at “work” and use up some of my writing time the phone rings We have plans that conflict with my writing time I’m just feeling particularly ADD My plan is to always write from 5-6 PM, for an hour, without exception, but of course life doesn’t … Read more

Where do you go when you need a little inspiration for your writing? What do you do? For me, it’s often music. Sometimes a certain song will tweak an idea in my mind, a seed that then grows into an idea for a story – not a simple retelling of the song’s lyrics, but more a feeling, an idea that springs from it. Other times, I’ll be stuck somewhere in a story, and I’ll be in the car on the way somewhere, and again a song will tease an idea free in my head, which will link to something else … Read more

I’m starting off on what’s sort of a re-write and sort of a re-imagining of a WIP I’ve had around for a long time. First, a little history. I started writing Oberon back in the nineties, It was my first attempt to really merge my gay identity with my love for sci fi, and I got maybe five scenes in before I left it to sit on the shelf, along with the rest of my writing career. Fast-forward to last year. I’d picked up my writing again after a decade’s hiatus, and came across this interesting little bit of a … Read more

I’ve never been good at short stories. For starters, I generally used to sit down and just start writing without an endpoint in mind. While it’s fun to have no idea where your story is going (it’s just like being a reader!) you end up with a whole bunch of half finished stories and a few that never seem to end. For a long time, when I tried to intentionally write a short story, I had a hard time reining it in. At a minimum, they seemed to want to become novellas… there just wasn’t a way to tell my … Read more