Towards a new measure of writing productivity

When I decided back in college that I wanted to write professionally, I made a point of tracking my daily word counts. I even made graphs with the data, showing both my daily count and a seven-day rolling total (some of you may remember how I used to post those graphs on this blog). Tracking… Continue reading Towards a new measure of writing productivity

Familiar vs. original vs. WTF?

In writing, you’ve always got to strike a balance between things that the readers find familiar and things that might be original or new to them. Every genre has its own standard set of tropes, plot twists, character archetypes, and other such story elements, and even if the readers can’t explain them all to you,… Continue reading Familiar vs. original vs. WTF?

Further thoughts on the drama in the SF&F community and a rescinding of some previous thoughts

About a year ago, there was a big discussion in the science fiction & fantasy community about sexual harassment and sci-fi conventions. As a result of that discussion, allegations were thrown out about a certain senior editor at Tor, rumors began to fly, and through what some might characterize as popular justice and others might… Continue reading Further thoughts on the drama in the SF&F community and a rescinding of some previous thoughts

I’m not going to talk about nanowrimo

I’m not going to talk about nanowrimo because … yeah, I’m not going to talk about nanowrimo. I’ve been doing a lot to get the print versions of the Star Wanderers novellas up, but beyond that, not a whole lot of writing.  Still one scene to go in Sons of the Starfarers: Brothers in Exile… Continue reading I’m not going to talk about nanowrimo

Quick update and a funny thing

First, just a quick update on my latest writing projects.  I got the feedback from my second round of test readers for Star Wanderers: Reproach (Part VII), and while I think the story still needs work, it’s getting closer. I probably won’t be able to get it out by the end of September, but first… Continue reading Quick update and a funny thing

Writing at a stroll

I haven’t been writing too much these past few days, or revising much either, but I have been rereading a lot of stuff and getting myself back into the fantasy world of my next big novel. I’ve made a few changes, but decided to keep most of the stuff that I wrote while in Georgia,… Continue reading Writing at a stroll

It’s all there (mostly), just out of order

So I picked up the rough draft of Star Wanderers: Benefactor (Part VI) this week and started making notes for the revision.  It turns out that most of the scenes after the first chapter are jumbled and out of order. This is good, because it means that I don’t have to toss it out and… Continue reading It’s all there (mostly), just out of order

Thoughts on the recent drama in the SF&F community

NOTE: I’ve since changed my views and retracted many of the things I said in this blog post. You can find a link to the retraction here. Oh, boy, has there been a lot of drama in the science fiction & fantasy community recently.  From the trouble with the SFWA bulletin to the revelation of… Continue reading Thoughts on the recent drama in the SF&F community