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Accepting Responsibility for Your Writing Career

Like many of you, when I began writing I started a couple of novels but soon discovered that there was a lot more to writing than I had anticipated.  I got a few chapters into each of them and had to stop for one reason only: I didn’t know what to

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Setting Writing Goals to Finish Your Book

For over thirty years now, I’ve been setting writing goals. As a youngster, they were often unrealistic, of course.  “I’m going to write forty pages per day for two weeks, and I’ll have a novel done!” Well, I’ve written up to 70 pages in a day, and they were even

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Finding Courage

A good friend of mine wrote five novels before he got the courage to submit one to a publisher.  (It was a great book, and it became a bestseller!)  A young author I met on a panel once was shaking when she sat down.  I asked if she was all right,

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Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 11: Taking the Plunge

From the time that I was a teen, I’d wanted to write a fantasy series.  In fact, my first two attempts at fiction writing were both fantasy novels, but as I got into college I began writing other things—literary fiction, poetry, science fiction, non-fiction.  Ten years after winning the grand

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Dream Sequences

Most editors will warn you against writing too many dream sequences.  The problems in writing about dreams are multitudinous.  Very often, a new author will write an opening to a story and feel that it is dull, so he or she will spice it up by putting in an action

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A Screenwriter Wins at Prose Fiction Writing

I wrote my million words of crap blissfully unaware of the “rules.” [My novella] was the first piece of writing I actually submitted to a traditional SFF market. That quarter I had an honorable mention. I subscribed to Dave’s newsletter in May 2010 when it was still called Daily Kicks.

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Telescoping

One book that I frequently recommend for writers is Orson Scott Card’s Characters and Viewpoint.  I do it for a number of reasons.  First, Scott looks at such issues as whether to write a novel in first person, second, or third; he also look at past, present, and future tense,

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Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 9: Writing Fun

Many authors, when they “get serious” about writing, discover that their attitude will suck all of the fun out of their work, and it shows in their prose. A novelist who isn’t having fun will tend to write beautifully and powerfully, but may go an entire novel without cracking a

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Eliminating On-The-Nose Dialogue

Today’s writing tip comes from Alex Bloom, the founder of Script Reader Pro, a screenplay consultancy and blog based in Los Angeles dedicated to helping aspiring and working screenwriters. Whether or not you are a screenwriter, Alex’s writing tip applies to narrative writing too. Eliminating On-The-Nose Dialogue Have you ever received

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Defying the Reader’s Expectations

Imagine this: you pick up a story and begin reading only to discover that the story seems to be about you.  The main character has your name.  He repeats all of your favorite phrases.  His friends are all people that you know, and the story seems to be drawn from

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Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 8: Making Connections

While my early novels were all bestsellers on the science fiction lists, hitting the New York Times bestseller list was another matter entirely.  With each novel that you write, you’ll find that you make new business and personal connections with people. You need to be prepared for that. For example,

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How to End a Novel Well

Today, I want to talk about the ending of your novel or short story.  Most new writers don’t have a problem ending their story.  After all, if you’re working on a large novel and you’ve spent a year or two of your life working toward the ending, the chances are excellent

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Writing a Bestselling Series, Chapter 7: The Lifesaver

I knew that the second book in my Serpent Catch series was doomed.  There were three indicators. The first was that my publisher had been bought out by a conglomerate that wanted to ditch all of the science fiction and fantasy authors—literally dozens of them.  The second came when my

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