Author | Joseph L. Selby

Tag: writethink

  • A Paragraph

    If you read industry blogs at all, you have seen an agent or two (or two hundred) occasionally talk about reaction emails. Reaction emails are when an amateur (not an aspiring author) shows that he or she is no way emotionally ready for the challenges of publishing and may never be. They submit their query…

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  • Words and Games

    The topic of custom words in fantasy has come up in a variety of places I visit lately (Book Country, et al.), and while I don’t hold it against people who choose to have names for months other than January-December, I find it a distraction and a lot of work for very little return. So…

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  • Ooooo *shivers* Do it again!

    I just had one of those moments. I love those moments. Back in the day, the reason I never finished anything was because I tried to plot things out. I might get a ways into it. I tried to get a feel for it and then write an outline, but I was convinced I couldn’t…

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  • A Tree is Just a Tree

    Way back when, I meant to pursue a career in the United States military. At first I thought the navy and then found my place with the army. I was in an ROTC program, but because I had not started from the beginning, I was required to go to Camp Challenge (or basic camp). It’s…

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  • A Self-(pub)-Study

    Joseph Garrety spent the last month reading only self-published work. He blogged about his findings. I think this is a very good assessment and doesn’t show a bias one way or the other. (Though I expect I would be far less forgiving on the lack of quality. I am equally harsh with traditionally published works…

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  • Comments, Questions, Criticisms

    We’ve all seen the blog posts and Tweets by agents of the horrible responses some queriers send them a rejection. It can be fun to rubberneck such responses, watching the car wreck that is that person’s nonsexistent career and wonder What were you thinking? That’s a no brainer, though. I assume none of you would…

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  • The Five As

    So after a very direct post telling you to publish for the money, I turn around and say I’m not in publishing for the money. …okay, I’m not only in publishing for the money, and I doubt you are either. I’ve been a long-time fan of George Carlin and even got to see him for…

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  • Knowledge = (the battle)/2

    I was watching a movie the other day and character A says of character B that he is a marksman. He can strike a man square in the chest at 50 meters. This was a modern piece with modern weaponry. There are different levels of writing what you know. The soul of some things can…

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  • The Rhythm of My H–Fingers

    I wrote today. By itself this is not a big deal. I write a minimum of five days a week. Near the end of JH, I was writing seven days a week1. But I had a powerful flu that caused me to do not much of anything but sit on the couch under a blanket…

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  • Arbitrary Milestones

    I passed 10,000 words on THE 7TH SACRIFICE this morning. This pleases me. I don’t know why it pleases me more than passing 9,000 words or 11,000 words. 11,000 is more than 10,000 so why doesn’t that please me more? And it can’t be some ridiculous “if I pass 10,000 then I know I’ll finish…

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