News:

Anybody interested in joining a behind the scenes critique group, please PM Ed :smiley:

Main Menu

Pitfalls of writing SF and F (applies to F in H, too, I think)

Started by Ed, December 16, 2008, 05:05:44 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Ed

Can't remember how I came across this link to Vonda McIntyre's site, but on the end of this link is another one of those tip lists that famous and up and coming authors seem fond of writing. The tips make a fair bit of sense, though.

http://www.vondanmcintyre.com/Pitfalls.html
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

rsmccoy

It's better to burn out, than fade away...

desertwomble

It seems she apparently knows what she's talking about!

DW :santa_cheesy:
http://chaucers-uncle.weebly.com/

www.paulfreeman.weebly.com
 
Read my most recent winning Global Short Story Competition entry:
http://www.inscribemedia.co.uk/assets/october-ebook.pdf

i_abomination

These things are always useful, but rarely different from one another.  I guess there's only so many ways to write poorly, haha
Tune up all your rusty strings, let every Christian sing - I wanna dance when I go to meet my king.

Geoff_N

It is always fun to read another list. Nothing new there really compared to Al Guthrie's Hunting down the pleonasms
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=102594

and Elmore Leonard's 10 Tips
http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/weblog/more/elmore_leonards_ten_rules_of_writing/

Pleonasms, or redundancy, and its laceration takes up much of my life as a freelance writer. None of those tips focus on POV, Show not tell, and making characters 3D - those three take up much of my time too.

Geoff

delboy

Quoteand making characters 3D - those three take up much of my time too.

I reckon I'm going to attach a pair of those blue and red cardboard spectacles when submitting stories to editors in future...  :ssmiley

Del
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

Geoff_N

Quote from: delboy on December 17, 2008, 06:12:46 AM
Quoteand making characters 3D - those three take up much of my time too.

I reckon I'm going to attach a pair of those blue and red cardboard spectacles when submitting stories to editors in future...  :ssmiley

Del

LOL. You don't need to worry with your characters - those in your Silver scifi story still stick in my mind.

Geoff

catephoenix

It is not the bang that terrifies, but the anticipation of it - Alfred Hitchcock

http://fright-fest.blogspot.com
www.strangemeninpinstripesuits.com

Ed

Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Geoff_N

Her formatting guidelines are a bit dated. I know of no mainstream publisher that still wants italicised words to be underlined in an electronicor paper submission format. For small press it is a pain to convert them especially as some underlined words might be hyperlinks. Most do not want two spaces between each sentence, though they are easy to fix.
Good overal advice though.

She seems to avoid mentioning the real reason why subs are in Courier - she mentions ease of reading and acquisition eds being used to Courier but in fact it is easier to read a serif font - on paper or screen if you are to read thousands of words in one session. Courier, is a font where each letter has equal width. Consequently, it is easier to estimate the word length. No one seems to trust the word count software.

Very handy list of the submission links to the main US editors for SF.
Just remember there are British and Irish mags too - and Escape Velocity!

Geoff