FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Justine Bonczek: How do ya’ll create/translate politics – a very human framework for organizing society – into alien/magical societies? Do you take what exists in human history and tweak it, or do you start from the ground up to create something new? Curious minds want to know! Join the chat
Today I thought it might be interesting to discuss how we all came to LGBT fiction, whether as readers or writers. For me, it all started with the film Van Helsing in 2004. Meeting fellow fans through the LiveJournal account I had at the time led me to discover fan fiction, and slash in particular. One of my earliest serious attempts at writing was a fan fiction with a Dracula/Van Helsing back story. I’ve written the occasional piece since—Rimmer/Lister (Red Dwarf), Hannibal/Will (Hannibal), Ragnar/Athelstan (Vikings), Sherlock/John (Sherlock), Steve/Loki (Avengers) etc.—and I still read a story or two when a … Read more
FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer John Allenson: “For writers and readers, is there an area where you have some expertise where mistakes drive you bonkers? ie. One of my friends is an entomologist who hates it when people call arachnids ‘bugs’.” Yeah, we all have those things, whether it has to do with our own identity (no, gay guys don’t all call people “Sweetie!”) or our work (sorry, but ostriches don’t have fur!). What are some of your “get it wrong” pet peeves? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but … Read more
How many times has this happened to you? You read a book, watch a movie, catch something on the Hallmark channel and think, “I’ve read this before. I know this story.” You go off to search and find that, no, you really haven’t. Still, the feeling of story deja vu persists. You’ve just been sideswiped by a generic story. When we talk about tropes, we’re really talking about the essential building blocks of a story, the components a writer uses as construction materials. But there has to be more to the story, of course. Characterization, author voice, unique or surprising … Read more
Today I thought I would cover three of the common editing queries I see from science fiction and fantasy writers. 1) World and Race Names The common issue here appears to be whether or not to capitalise. My advice is to follow standard English conventions, unless you have a strong reason not to do so. In either case, the real key is consistency. Don’t swap and change from chapter to chapter; make a decision on your preference and stick to it. Here is an example based on common English usage, followed by a fantasy rendering. In Denmark, many Danes enjoy … Read more
FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer ‘Nathan Smith: “How consciously do readers ‘vote with their dollar’? By which I mean I try very hard to purchase and pre-order LGBTIQA and AoC authors, #ownvoices, etc.?” I’m gonna expand Nathan’s topic scope a bit. I’d also like to ask, do you withhold your purchases from authors who you think have acted badly? Someone notoriously anti gay, for instance? Someone who has plagiarized in the past? Someone who has acted badly at cons? Or is the quality of the writing the most important thing? No name calling or calling out here … Read more
Anyone who knows me well will know semicolons are punctuation marks about which my views are passionate. Unfortunately, many digital/small publishing houses do not appear to agree. Notes from editors frequently come through to me with requests to remove all (or at least some) of my semicolons since they are ‘specialised punctuation’. My response to this (in my head) is to ask: Since when? Now, this column is by no means intended as a rant against any publishers or fellow editors; I merely use it to illustrate a point. I fully accept that each publishing house has its own preferences, … Read more
Verb tenses can get complicated depending on the language. So in the interest of not going down that road, we’re not even going to invite things like past perfect, subjunctive, pluperfect and such to the party. Generally speaking, fiction writers choose either past or present tense for their narratives. We could try writing in future tense – and I think I recall a couple of experimental short stories someone wrote that way – but this stretches reader expectations to the breaking point and puts more emphasis on the verb tense than a writer usually wants. In other words, it’s distracting … Read more
We all actually know what these are. We just forget what they’re called, because really, how often does this come up in conversation? So while an epigraph can be the inscription on a monument, for writing purposes, an epigraph is a quote from another author that one finds at the beginning of a chapter, story section or work. You find them at the beginning of Frank Herbert chapters, at the beginning of T.S. Eliot poems, at the start of Stephen King novels. Depending on the author, they can serve different purposes. They can set tone. They can anticipate or illuminate … Read more
