FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Alicia Nordwell: “How do you know when a story is finished?” It’s a great question, both in general – how long do you keep going? And specifically – what ending will wrap up the story best and in the most satisfying way? And of course, is it in good enough shape editing wise to let it go out into the world? Join the chat
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Lex Chase: “Things no one told me when I became an author.” Um, let’s see. Writing is a lonely job. It’s hard to change prices on Amazon. You only get so many rounds with your cover designer before they blacklist you… I could go on? Share your own “shouldas”. Join the chat
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer ‘Nathan Smith: Knowing that audiences say they want series, but being aware of the financial diminishing returns—how long a series is too long, the different types of series, and do you write them in one go, or do you pepper with standalones, etc. Join the chat
FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Nathan Smith: “how to write a short but useful reveiwz?” It’s a great topic. So often, a review is nothing more than a summary with spoilers. So what should a useful review include? What should be left out? And what do you, as a reader, most like to see? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! Join the chat
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Kari Trenten: “Also, fashion. It might be fun to talk about how we picture dressing up (or undressing) our characters.” I’ll take it a step further. When you are writing speculative fiction, how much thought do you give to how your characters are dressed? Do you do research to determine the best kinds of clothing> Grab pics from the web? Sketch? Join the chat
Apologies for being a day late with my post. I thought I’d already scheduled this one ahead of time, but clearly I was thinking of last month’s post instead. Oops. Anyway, without further ado….
It’s summer here in Australia, and with the weather hotting up, it seemed a good time to talk about writing sex scenes. Plus, it conveniently ties in with one of our recent discussions. Below I’ll outline the four points to keep in mind to ensure your climax goes off with a bang.
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Kari Trenten: “Art, too. How art affects our ideas, imagination, and how we connect it to magic intrigues me.” It’s an interesting topic. :) Have you ever been inspired to write a story based on a piece of art? Has art ever inspired magic in one of your stories? How does art fit into your writing process, if at all? Join the chat
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Denise Dechene: “Not really a question but LGBTQI+ encompasses a wide range of sexual identities. Reading gives us some of them but what about a day or days identifying them and explaining and discussing ways to incorporate them into books?” OK, so lets kick this off. We’ll devote a day each over the next few months talking about writing different types of characters across the LGBTIQA spectrum. Given that each of us is human, there’s no one “right” way to write a lesbian character. But maybe we can tackle this from a … Read more
