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writing

FOR READERS & WRITERS: The Setting is Everything

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FOR READERS & WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Kelly Haworth: Writers, how do you use setting to enhance the emotions of your scenes? Readers, have you seen any great examples of when the setting fits the mood/plot of a book perfectly? Writers: This is a reader/writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABV MeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf

FOR WRITERS: Prologues

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FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Violet Joicey-Cowen: To prologue or not to prologue, that is the question… do you use prologues? Id so, why? If not, why not? Our writers discuss. Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABV MeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf

A Loaf of Bread, A Jug of Urine and Thou – Jeff Baker

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Writers have day jobs. It’s a plain fact of economics, writing doesn’t pay that much unless the writer is very lucky. We supplant our creative careers with a nine-to-five (or six to three, or some such.) A lot of writers have been teachers. Stephen King taught high school English. Jeffrey Marks juggles teaching and editing, the British ghost story writer M. R. James was a Provost of King’s College, Cambridge and Eaton. Some writers, like Steve Berman, have worked in publishing. And others, like me, have jobs that have nothing to do with writing at all. For the last 25 … Read more

FOR READERS & WRITERS: Checking the Facts

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FOR READERS & WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Terry Poole: How important are fact checking/realism to a story? Writers: how do you fact check your work? Readers: does it bother you when a story gets the facts wrong? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat

“How I Do It” – Boogieman In Lavender

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                          By Jeff Baker                                                Not every writer writes short-stories. The form has been described as “difficult” and “challenging.” Some fiction writers don’t write short-stories. I write almost nothing but short-stories. I haven’t discussed the process very often, and I don’t always do it the same way, but this is more or less how I do it. (Sometimes.) First, there’s the idea. Ideas are easy. Everybody gets them. It’s what we do with them that counts. About four years ago we had a storm here and the power went out. It was Friday evening, we had no place to be the next … Read more

FOR READERS/WRITERS: Balancing Act

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FOR READERS/WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer A.T. Weaver: Here’s a question for both readers and writers. If you have a story with two POVs, how important is it that they be similar or equal in length? Writers: This is a reader.writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat

FOR WRITERS: Story Monogamy Vs. Playing the Field

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FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: One of the ways I avoid writer’s block is by having multiple stories going at once. If I get stuck on one, I can switch to another while I figure out the issue. Not everyone likes to work on multiple projects at once, though. What about you? Are you a story monogamist? Or do you like to play the field? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of … Read more

Thorne Smith and “Turnabout.” – Boogieman In Lavender

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Jeff Baker

  Thorne Smith’s Turnabout                                   By Jeff Baker             The slumber of (this) happily married couple was troubled that night by strangely realistic dreams…Tim got the impression that his body was being critically inspected. Sally later admitted that she had experienced the same feeling. And through all those dreams and dim imaginings the figure of Mr. Ram was inextricably woven…  ——from “Turnabout,” by Thorne Smith             LGBT writers, that is, writers who deal with LGBT characters and themes find themselves addressing issues of gender roles and gender identities frequently. Almost a century ago, a very heterosexual writer wrote a comic novel … Read more

FOR WRITERS: Everyday Details

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FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Janet Gershen Siegel: How much description of mundane life do you use in your world-building? None, a touch, lots? And why? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat