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(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Once you’ve found your way to where you’re going . . . what then? Where are you going to stay once you get there? Let’s start, as we so often … Continue reading
Category Archives: Writers on Writing
It’s a favorite panel topic at science fiction conventions – scratch around in any con’s program and some variation of “pantser or plotter?” will pop up, like you’re playing Whack-a-Mole. You’d think people have heard everything to be said about … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Maps come in many shapes, sizes, and colors. But they all share one thing in common: they are, at best, approximations of the thing they represent. This is inevitable. Even … Continue reading
We’re mostly unpacked after moving to the new house, wonderful, comfortable, large enough to hold the above hamster wheel desk. The old house has a buyer, November settled down on us with sunny and crisp cold days and colder nights … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) In these days of GPS telling us every turn to take and where to find a parking spot when we get to our destination, it’s easy to forget that finding … Continue reading
Dear Auntie Deborah: Help! My characters have gone amok and won’t follow the plot of my book! What can I do to whip them into shape? — A Frustrated Author Dear Frustrated: The short (but brutal) answer is that your characters … Continue reading
The first bit of advice for the aspiring pantser is the least useful of all. You have to begin it. You have to have some dim idea of what the work is going to be like, and you have to … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Demons: they’re bad, right? Maybe. Depending on who you ask. And when. Because like “faerie,” “demon” is a word used to cover a huge swath of creatures — and in … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Like several of the other creatures discussed this October and last, angels are, in the strict sense, a very culture-specific concept. They’re a key element of the Abrahamic religions — … Continue reading
The words we choose to use when we speak and write can bring people joy or sorrow, can make them angry or calm them down, can lead to understanding or conflict. They can excite, amuse, enthrall, and/or inform. A single … Continue reading