Tag: deficiencies
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Stuart Greenman has the right of it
Livia Blackburne tipped me off to Stuart Greenman’s entry into the Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest. In one sentence (and pay attention, it really is one sentence), Stuart Greenman shows everything that drives me nuts about fantasy: A quest is not to be undertaken lightly–or at all!–pondered Hlothgar of the Western Boglands, son of Glothar, nephew…
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Humility Has Its Limits
My routine on a writing week and a reading week are pretty similar. Spend an hour on the commuter rail either reading or writing. Spend 20 minutes on the subway reading. (Writing on the subway is very difficult, and I do it very infrequently). While I have a number of samples and one novel on…
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What if Books Were Like TV
Following the recommendation of many, many people, I finally got around to renting the first disc of season 1 of “White Collar” (that’s the USA show that stars Chuck’s Bryce Larkin as a conman working for the feds). I have to say, the pilot really hooked me. It wasn’t as flimsy as I thought it…
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Beware the AYFKM, My Son
There are plenty of reasons a person may stop reading your book at the beginning: overwriting, underwriting, rehashed plots or story elements, a disconnection with the protagonist. I can’t even list the number of books I’ve picked up and put back down before the end of chapter 1 (it’s a long list). That’s the important…
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Description is Tricky
Hannah Mosk commented recently that her first drafts are very short. They end up being mostly dialogue. She goes in during revision and fleshes the story out to its full potential. I’m getting better at this, but it used to be incredibly hard for me not to do anything but dialogue. That’s where the story…