Thoughts
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Bad Advice
The last Thoughts on Fiction post I made had to do with writing forums and social media, and the scurrilous types that slime their way along the bottom, leaving their sluglike, ochre fluid trails of shit-takes and propagandized bad information. So, like before, avoid these brothels of iniquity — these echo chambers of the poorly… Continue reading
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Harsh Truths
I started this series a long, long time ago, and its initial purpose was to guide newer writers along the path toward writing better fiction. It evolved over the years, and I began to include other ideas aside from the general, Writing: 101-style, generic bits of advice, and dove a little deeper into the actual… Continue reading
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Voice
There’s a point in the beginning of learning to write good fiction, where every new writer is suddenly overwhelmed with information about what “good” writing looks like. No longer is the act of sitting down and banging out a few thousand words of pure, unfiltered, unedited, (and let’s be honest) garbage, any fun anymore. As… Continue reading
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Storytelling
Welcome back to the continuing series of Thoughts on Fiction, where I dish out in some form or another exactly what the title says. Don’t take my words as scripture, as, with everything, what works for some doesn’t work for all. This is just a series of thoughts, ideas, and current perceptions about the act… Continue reading
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Novice Mistakes, part 2
Yesterday I chose to start talking about mistakes novice writers often make in the hopes that I may be able to help someone out there who perhaps is having doubts about their own writing, and may recognize some of these mistakes in their writing, and be able to improve. I started with dialog introductory paragraphs,… Continue reading
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Novice Mistakes
Before I go into what I want to talk about, I need to apologize to those of you that still follow this page. I have a well-documented history of posting regularly for short bits of time, and then neglecting this page completely for months, and sometimes well over a year. This is an example of… Continue reading
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Writing What You Know
The single, most used piece of writing advice ever, is write what you know. It’s good advice. It isn’t great advice, and I’d argue that there are much better (and much less vague) words of wisdom to bestow upon would-be writers. I’m sure I’ll touch on some of that in just a moment, but in… Continue reading
-
Thoughts of Fiction: Outlining
There’s generally two camps — both full of ravenous, blood-lusting, ax-wielding psychopaths — when it comes to the topic of outlines. Extreme camp 1 believes that outlining your novel before writing it somehow streamlines the process, making the victory of the battle to come, the battle of writing your novel, predestined, foreseen in the stars… Continue reading
-
Thoughts on Fiction: Naysayers
Who here is afraid to tell someone that they write? One of those casual conversations comes up, always, where someone asks what you do, or what you want to do, or what your hobbies are, and you self-cringe at the thought of spouting off anything to do with writing. Why? It’s not like it’s dishonest… Continue reading
-
Aspiring, they say?
To all of my fellow writers out there — especially the unpublished — I have some advice. Just like any advice, take it with a grain of salt. Kosher only, and add pepper. All of you writers — word-smiths , scribblers, even wordcount grinders — I have one wish for you. You all, are writers… Continue reading
The Depths
The Blank Page 