Education

Being a Better Writer: Be Curious!

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Welcome, writers! It’s Monday, and that means we’re back with another installment of Being a Better Writer.

Now, today’s installment is probably going to wind up a bit shorter than normal, because I picked a more straightforward topic. Maybe not. I say this from time to time, but only half the time am I right. But I’ll try, because I’ve got editing to do for Blood Less Vile and The Phoenix, plus an absolute blast of a draft to get back to with A Pirate Planet.

Speaking of A Pirate Planet, Patreon Supporters got an early look both Friday and today, Friday’s at an exploratory I did of the opening to narrow down the characters and setting, while today they’re getting a look instead at what the “final but still a draft” version of the opening is instead for comparison purposes. So if you’re a supporter, head on over to the Patreon Page and take a look. And if you’re not a supporter …

Well, consider becoming one? Especially if you’ve been reading Being a Better Writer for any length of time. You might have noticed that there are no advertisements on the page. No, that’s not because you have an adblocker, or because I don’t know how to set them up. But because I refuse to have ads on my website. Instead of ads, I count on the support of readers, either through means like Patreon or purchasing some of my many books, to make up for the lost advertising revenue. Being a Better Writer is given ad-free and without any sort of “paid” requirement (unlike a lot of other author workshops out there that charge for what Being a Better Writer offers without cost).

Point being, if you’ve been around for a while and haven’t considered supporting the site, please do. Being a Better Writer is used by everything from classroom and college syllabi to up-and-coming writers looking to finish their first book, and it has that distinction because it counts on the generosity of its users to make up for the difference in losses from not paywalling or locking its content behind advertisement.

So again, if you’re a long term user of Being a Better Writer, please consider supporting via Patreon or through the purchase of a book or two. Even a small amount helps.

All right. With that reminder weighing on all our souls, let’s move on to the star attraction of these Monday posts, and talk about methods of Being a Better Writer. Again, as is becoming more frequent these days, today’s topic has been addressed before in a few different places, but we’re hitting it head on simply because it remains a frequent question and concept that’s quite hard for some would-be writers to grasp. Sands I’ve had some, when pressured on this topic, double back with “But no, really?” because they heard me correctly, but don’t want to believe that the answer is what it is. I was asked this question multiple times at the latest LTUE, and I’ve been asked it since then when my work comes up.

That question is, along with it’s associated part two, “How do you come up with so many unique story ideas? And how can I come up with ideas like that?”

Well, the answer is actually pretty simple, but it’s hard for a lot of people to grasp, I think perhaps because so many of us in society are discouraged from the exact behavior I want to talk about today, which is why they then go “But no, really” after they get my answer. Because it’s an answer that’s both simple but also isn’t … and can be difficult to get in the habit of, especially if you’ve spent a lifetime repressing it.

That answer is, put simply: Be curious. That’s it. Curiosity is the fount from which a billion questions spring without ceasing. Questions that often make great story prompts. Why does a plane load the way it does. What made the Mongols such effective horseback warriors? Why does one tire spin in place when my car is stuck?

Why? What if? What about? If you want to be an author who comes up with fantastic story ideas, these are questions you need to habitually be asking.

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Being a Better Writer: Learning From Real History

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Welcome back writers! Monday is here, and with it, more Being a Better Writer!

Yeah, I know. It’s hardly a surprise. Being a Better Writer has been dropping on the regular now for how long? But hey, I like to believe you’re all still pretty excited to see what we’re talking about this week.

Now, before we deliver on that excitement, it is my responsibility to note that there was a Friday news post that you may want to take a look at. Especially as it concerns the paperback for Axtara – Magic and Mischief!

That’s right! After months of being trapped in limbo, Amazon finally got some capybaras assigned to hammer at their servers and got things all fixed. The paperback for Axtara – Magic and Mischief is finally available to US purchasers (everyone else had it months ago) and has shipped! There are some fine details to be concerned with if you pre-ordered or had a standing order—check the post for more—but I’ve been getting happy reports all week from fans that their copies finally arrived and they’re digging in!

So, you know, don’t miss your chance if a paperback’s what you’ve been waiting for. Dragons, banking, loans, princesses … and some fun surprises along the way! You can even order it at your favorite bookstore!

Ahem. Anyway, that and more was in the news post. So I advise checking it out. With that out of the way, let’s talk about today’s Being a Better Writer topic. And to do that, I want to tell you a story. About a story!

So hit that jump, and let’s get down to it.

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Being a Better Writer: Using Myth, Legend, Folklore, and Fairy Tale as a Springboard

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Welcome back writers! Who’s ready for to talk writing? Because if you aren’t, well, I’ll point you at last week’s news post but then otherwise be perplexed about why you’re here. After all, it’s a post titled Being a Better Writer, so I don’t know what you expected otherwise.

But for the rest of us, we’re just going to dive right in to a topic that … Well, I’ll be straightforward with my analysis here. I know some of you saw that title and either just groaned or immediately rolled your eyes. I’ve seen it happen in real-world settings. A number of people hear that topic and immediately think something to the effect of “You’re kidding, right?”

To tackle this quickly, before it gets out of hand, I get it. Most alive today have grown up with an abundance of access to “fairy tales” or “mythology” … largely through the efforts of a very corporate mouse-themed company and their mining of classic fairy tale for their animated features. But even outside their efforts, it’s really hard to walk into a bookstore and not find a huge swath of fairy-tale rewrites, especially in the middle-grade or young-adult section of the bookstore.

In other words, there’s saturation for a lot of people. They see this sort of stuff everywhere and think “What would I contribute?” or “Ugh, more of the same story?” and they check out. I get it … but …

Yes, I know it’s a little annoying to go into a bookstore and see sixteen different versions of The Goose Girl. I’ve rolled my eyes at that too. But that isn’t the fault of the original tale. It was just popular. We could blame publishers for doubling-down on selling as many variations on the same book as possible, but that’s getting out of touch with what the point of this post is.

I get that. But don’t let that extend to your own digging into these stories as source material, because that’s shutting off a vast ocean of mankind’s tales that we still know of today—and still use as inspiration—because they’re good. That’s how they’ve stuck around for so long.

But further than that, it is in fact an ocean, not a single pond. Shying away from fairy tale, folklore, myth, or legend just because one or two stories out of that ocean are overrepresented is denying yourself a huge array of idea-generating material without ever seeing it!

So yeah, I get that people might roll their eyes at the start of this post, or even at the title. But don’t, please. Extend a little trust, hit that jump, and let’s give this topic some needed discussion.

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Being a Better Writer: Finding Your Writing Strengths

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Welcome back, writers! It’s late, but it’s new! That’s right, the internet is up at my new place and that means more Being a Better Writer!

Really I think I did all right with just one classic post during the move. I probably could have gotten away with one today, but I kind of figured you’d all be alright with a new one even if it was a little late. But before we dive into that, let’s have some news!

First and foremost: Axtara – Magic and Mischief. The Beta is done. Almost. Now that I have the internet, all I need to do is make the final checks and changes requested/noted by the Beta crew, and then I can move on to the copy edit! Huzzah!

Also, now that I have the internet, I can confer with the cover artist and start getting details and linework hashed out. Which means … Yes. I can finally start getting a release date figured out.

I truly am sorry this has taken so long and been subject to so many delays. I really am. I would have loved to have had this adventure out some time ago and been hard at work on whatever book was winning the Patreon Supporter Vote (The Phoenix, at the moment), but … Well, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff I wish would have happened differently in the last seven months.

I’ll probably apologize again before this is all over, because I truly am sorry. But outside of apology, all I can do is keep working to get this out as quickly as possible!

Now, I do have other news. This last week, I’ve been working on my submissions for Glory and Honor, the next LTUE Benefit Anthology. The call expires at the end of this month, so if you’re thinking about submitting, you’d best hurry up!

Patreon Supporters, take note: I tend to drop at least one of my submissions (in its pre-edited state) on Patreon as a Supporter Reward, so there will be some shorts coming your way in the next few weeks. One of which ended up a messy novella that I definitely won’t be submitting (it’s incoherent with its theme, needs more character and character development, but the foundation is a solid idea so it’s now sitting in a category like The Phoenix and Strange Catch) but you may enjoy seeing. Especially as it’s a not great result that needs fixing.

Actually, now that I think about it, I could do a really cool series for Being a Better Writer this summer where I show the editing process on it, going from the early draft and picking out its biggest problems and then correcting them. Would that be something you guys are interested in?

Let’s see, final bits of news from the internet drought. A few new nice reviews, including a couple that lauded much praise on Colony and the UNSEC Trilogy as a whole over on Amazon and Goodreads. And next week there’s going to be a sale on some books. More on that as the date nears, but it’ll be a good chance to pick some titles up on the anniversary of their release.

Okay, that’s all the news. Whew! Let’s talk writing. Specifically, yours.

That’s right: Today’s post is dedicated to you. The reader coming here to learn how to further your writing craft. Yes, today I want to talk less about things like character development or weaving subplots into our stories (all stuff we’ve talked about before) in favor of discussing instead something personally relevant to every writer and author out there: identifying your personal writing strengths.

In other words, this post is all about you. So hit that jump, and let’s talk.

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Op-Ed: Rebooting America’s Education System

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This post has been a long time in coming. It’s one I’ve wanted to make for months, almost a year, really, but just kept putting off because of everything else that was going on. But at last, the time is here, and I’ve got a bit to talk about it.

I’m going to start out with a few obvious disclaimers: I don’t work in education. I came through the US education system, but I don’t work in it. I’ve taught, but on panels and in places like Sunday School classrooms, where attendance is pretty voluntary, and that’s a pretty different experience.

Second, I don’t wish for this post to be taken as “How dare you attack our teachers!” at all. Because it’s not. Most of the best teachers I’ve known have been hard-working individuals who cared a lot more about the job than the paltry paycheck they got in return would have indicated (much of which went right back to paying for things their school couldn’t).

This isn’t to say that there aren’t awful teachers out there, but they’re a symptom of the problems with the US’s education system and only a partial cause rather than the full cause.

I’m also not trying to say that the US’s education system has been flawed from the beginning. It wasn’t. Not initially. But … Well, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start where this whole thing for me started: With the biggest missed opportunity in decades.

The quarantine.

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Being a Better Writer: You Don’t Have to Teach, But You Can

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Hello readers! Welcome back after another weekend! I hope yours went well and gave you plenty of time to relax and engage in some fun activity. Like reading! Few things beat a Sunday afternoon with a book.

70081760_568294170598543_7425837595373862912_oNow, before we hop into today’s post, the usual quick news. First, a reminder that A Dragon and Her Girl is now out! Twenty stories of heroines and dragons, including one by yours truly! The early reviews have started to roll in for this one, and they’re pretty positive. If dragons or heroines are the kind of thing you’re interested in, then you should give this one a look!

Additionally—and there will be a full post on this Wednesday, but I’m mentioning it today—submissions are now open for the fourth LTUE benefit anthology (the series of which A Dragon and Her Girl is the second entry). The prompt this time? A parliment of wizards. Sci-Fi or fantasy. 17,500 words or less.

I’ll do a full post on this one later this week, but if you wanted to get your brain buzzing in advance and start thinking of your submissions, there’s the prompt.

And yes, I do have a story for it I’ll be starting as soon as episode two of Fireteam Freelance is finished. No name yet, but the plot is (mostly) figured out! It’s gonna be fun!

Second, the plan is to have Blackout, episode two of Fireteam Freelance, drop this Saturday morning. If you’ve been keeping up with Freelance thus far, then, be ready for this weekend!

All right, that’s all the news. Let’s get down to business. Let’s talk about today’s topic, starting with that title: You Don’t Have to Teach, But You Can. What on earth does that mean?

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Being a Better Writer: Why Writers Should Play Games

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I’m back!

Yup, got my replacement ethernet port installed and I’m back in business. I actually did get a pretty good amount of writing done too. Two weeks without internet notwithstanding, as Jungle isn’t in any position at the moment where it requires internet. Okay, well, it required some worldbuilding documents on Google Docs, but those I could skim on my phone.

Jungle, by the way, is still in the finale. Everything’s blowing up, similar to Colony, and that’s not really that much of a surprise as this is a sequel. Hopefully I can be done by the end of this week. There are only a few chapters more to go, and everything’s coming together pretty well. Editing is going to be a chore, but … that’s the writing life!

Okay, enough yammering about current events in my writing queue. Now to yammer about something else. Just a quick reminder, if you’re a Patreon Supporter, check the reward posts! I checked the stats on Patreon yesterday and some of those posts have only ever seen two views despite the number of supporters! I’m not sure if I’m not making them visible enough, or what, but I was genuinely surprised (especially as a few supporters have hinted that they didn’t feel there were enough Patreon rewards for being supporters … and yet a large majority of those rewards have barely been looked at). There’s retrospectives, worldbuilding extras and notes for various books, and even previews and short stories I’ve not posted anywhere else!

If you’re a supporter, don’t miss out! Those posts are for you! You can check out the entire backlog here, or just head on over to my Patreon page if you’re not a supporter yet, but would like to become one.

Okay, that’s all out of the way. Now how about I get down to today’s topic. Which is a bit of an odd one, sure, but one that’s worth bringing up. Today, we’re going to talk about why writers should play games. And no, I’m not talking about the kind of games where you find a maybe significant other and lead them on. Not those games.

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You Just Keep Pushing Me Away …

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Just a little note today. Not really tied into work—though that keeps progressing as normal—but more just a thought that’s been on my mind over the last few days.

There’s a lot of back-and-forth out there over the debate between “literary” fiction and “genre” fiction. Go find a writing or reading forum online, hang out there long enough, and you’ll see the topic come up. And there will be lots of back and forth on it, with one side usually gaining the upper-hand simply by virtue of the make-up of the board you’re on.

Point is, this is a debate that’s gone on for a long time, and one that is still at the forefront of reading and writing both. Sands, it’s part of the whole debate over the Hugos, since the sides are divided over what makes “good” fiction. One holds that it has to be “literary” and that the “genre fiction” the other suggests can’t possibly be good because it’s “genre” (and that is, for some, the end of the “discussion”).

Now, if you ask people what “literary” or “genre fiction” means, you’re going to get a plethora of responses, again based on what camp you approach, so with that in mind let’s set a little bit of context for my commentary today: I am specifically talking in response to the concept that “literary” fiction is the “intelligent and thought-provoking” fiction. The fiction that asks the tough questions or inspires moral philosophy … and on the other hand, genre fiction is just straight-entertainment fiction with no extra redeemable value, especially compared to literary work.

This might seem harsh, but this is actually pretty much exactly how you’ll see some people explain it. So, where am I taking issue?

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Being a Better Writer: Fanfiction – School or Crutch?

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Don’t forget, Unusual Events: A “Short” Story Collection is out now!

This post was originally written and posted January 19th, 2015, and has been touched up and reposted here for archival purposes.

Welcome back, everyone! It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it’s the beginning of another week, and I’ve got news. Some good news. Good news I won’t give you the details of yet, (as I’m still waiting on a few specific ones) but still pretty good news. Okay, really good news. I’ll give you more later this week, but for now, let’s just say those of you who like going to conventions may want to keep February 12th-14th clear on your calenders.

Alright, that’s that. Now, without any further ado, let’s get to this week’s topic of choice! Fanfiction!

So, this topic might seem a little odd to a few of you, but it’s actually based on a question I’ve been asked several times over the last few weeks, both by those that write fanfiction and those who don’t. A lot of prospective writers—even those who have been writing fanfiction for some time—seem to have a question that goes something like this: Is fanfiction really the best place for me to be practicing and building my talents? Or am I wasting my time, or perhaps being less productive than I would normally otherwise be?

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Being a Better Writer: Said and Other Repetitive Words

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Today’s post is going to be a shorter one,  as I still have more near-final proofreading to get done by tomorrow on Unusual Events, and I need to get to work on that to make sure I reach the January 19th upload date (after which you’ll be able to pre-order it, huzzah!).

Now, this post was inspired by something I read over the weekend, a blog by another author that crystallized and reacted with a lot of what I’ve noticed both here and on other writing sites among novice writers. Basically, that there’s a trend going around right now among younger English students (particularly those freshly from or in high school, where this idea has taken root with the teaching administration) that use of certain words, especially those that suffer repeated use in the same paragraph, should be avoided.

Right, some of you are probably thinking “Well, yes. You should avoid repeating yourself, right?” Well, yes and no, and I think some confusion between the two may be where part this problem is arising. So let’s take a look at that.

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