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This is Why We Have Editors
I use commas the way the B29 dropped bombs: let them loose to fall where they may, and hope they land where you want them. I can’t spell names I invented. I string together sentences longer than some...
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The Immerse or Die Storybundle
A while back, I heard about Jefferson Smith. He had this idea for his blog, where he would get on his treadmill and read a book by an indie author. The challenge for that book was to keep his interest...
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An Author is a Ventriloquist
‘Never let the audience see your lips move.’ To a ventriloquist, this seems like obvious advice. But to an author, it can be equally valuable. Part of the conceit of a ventriloquist’s act is the...
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Editing Dialogue: When the Rules Become Suggestions
I have written characters that speak like kings and professors. Perfect diction. Perfect use of vocabulary. Perfect grammar. This is fine for characters who are kings, professors, or anyone else whose...
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Arguing With the Universe: The Magic of Black Ocean
With the release of the 5th book in the Black Ocean series (Alien Racer), I figured it was a good time to start talking some about the world-building behind the series. Let’s talk magic. The Setting...
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Who Is Your Protagonist?
When you write, you’re bound to end up with a protagonist or two along the way (it would be a good trick not to!). Understanding your plot and how that protagonist fits into it can shape your story....
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Worldbuilding: One Versus One Billion
There are over 7 billion people on Earth. Your story world may have more, it may have fewer, but unless you are writing a creation myth, you’re talking very large numbers of people both alive and...
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Worldbuilding: the Gift that Keeps on Taking
“I’m working on a story, but I’m stuck on the worldbuilding.” I’ve heard some variant of this enough times that I felt the need to do something. Worldbuilding doesn’t come first. It’s like being...
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Readers Are Rectangles; Writers Are Squares
All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. Take that axiom from grade-school math class and replace “squares” with “writers” and “rectangles” with “readers.” It holds just as...
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Series Mentality
Write one book, and you can feel confident in calling yourself an author. Write three, and you might make a career out of it yet. Write a dozen, interconnected and following a common thread of...
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Medieval Stasis: Why is Fantasy Trapped in the Past
You’re reading a story about a knight, a huntsman, and a wizard. They stumble across the ruins of a lost civilization, but something seems strange. That ancient culture seems to have had the same...
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Why Science Fantasy Works
I hear the question come up every once in a while: “Can I write fantasy set in a sci-fi universe?” There seems to be some cognitive dissonance involved with the meeting of these two genres, and it...
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So You Want to Be a Writer
With the ever-increasing ease of self-publishing, more and more people are becoming writers. Most are doing it on the side of some other occupation, with no intention of ever taking on writing as a...
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Self-Editing for Continuity
One of the biggest mistakes a writer can make is a break in continuity. Immersion grinds to a halt, the reader does a double-take, and if you’re lucky, they might keep reading (if your book is...
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5 Worldbuilding Fouls (and How to Avoid Them)
If worldbuilding is the art of making someone believe in a world that doesn’t exist (and it is), then anything that shakes that belief is a strike against your worldbuilding. Every reader is going to...
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Rebranding: Cover and Title Upgrades for Black Ocean
Sometimes you reach a point where writing another book isn’t going to sell more of the earlier ones. One more promotion, one more guest blog, or one more interview isn’t going to kick your books from...
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Pop Culture in a Futuristic Society
Unless your futuristic society is comprised entirely of robots (a valid choice, of course), then there is going to be some sort of popular culture. People are going to want entertainment, are going to...
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Worldbuilding in Star Wars
I talk a lot about worldbuilding, but this time I’m going to show how it is conveyed in an example that (nearly) everyone is familiar with: Star Wars. Since it’s a well-known fictional universe, I’m...
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Writing an Episodic Series
I’ve written a series of long books. I’ve written one of more “standard” length books. But my current series is comprised of long novellas. I did this because I had in mind a particular pacing, a...
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Why Fiction Writers Are Crazy
Fiction writers are crazy. The non-fiction sorts can get away with having a normal outlook, describing things that exist and events that happened. They can inform and communicate. We fiction writers...
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