Yeah, some weeks are like that. It’s been crazy busy, and I’m six hours late with this column, and … nothing. So I thought I’d make you do the work, this week. What would you like me to talk about? Writing things? Personal things? Peps? The non-rainbow skittles? Robotech? Reply and let me know, and I’ll try to tackle it in a future column. xoxo –Scott
I’m writing again, and it feels really good. 🙂 But I’m doing it a little differently this time. I’m working over my first three chapters multiple times before moving ahead, making sure that I have three things settled in my head: The thrust of the plot The interdynamics of the characters The major and minor details of the world I always do this to some extent, but have never done so in such a thoughtful and deliberate way. From Pantsing to Plotting When I first started out as a writer, I was a total pantser. My overflowing “drawer” of what … Read more
I’ve always said when you stop growing as a writer, your writing dies. We’re like sharks, swimming and swimming to keep that oxygen pumping through our blood. A few years ago, when I first started writing seriously and sold my first story, I was on top of the world. I felt like I had finally arrived, and knew how to do this shit. People were actually taking me seriously as a writer. That didn’t last long. I got a rejection, and another, and another. I sold a few more stories too, but then my reviews started coming in, and I … Read more
I’m about to write a new novel. Problem is, which one? I have four possibilities I’m considering, so I thought I’d crowdsource this thing. Idea One: Liminal Sky Book Five – Fallen Angel: this would be an immediate follow-up to Dropnauts, my currently unsold novel in the Liminal Sky series, but with fewer POV characters and a tighter focus. Idea Two: Liminal Sky Book Five – Forever: An alternate book 5 in the series – and a recreation of the first book I ever wrote. This one would be a complete retelling of that story from scratch. “The Stark Divide” … Read more
So it’s a new week, and a new direction. Regular readers of this column (thanks Mom and the other two of you!) will know I’ve been struggling with my direction as an author since I finished my two trilogies, Liminal Sky and The Oberon Cycle. I have a completed manuscript for Dropnauts – book four in the Liminal Sky series, but after failing to snag a mentor in Pitch Wars, finding out another potential mentor just didn’t get my work, and getting only one agent response for three Twitter pitch events (who later rejected the work), I’ve been a bit … Read more
I’ve forgotten how good it feels just to read. It seems ironic that I’m a writer who doesn’t read anymore, doesn’t it? It’s like a chef who never bothers to taste any cooking other than his own. Or an artist who never visits an art gallery. I have no time. My work life is severely regimented. I’m one of those incredible overachievers with a truly disgusting work ethic, spared only from relationship ruin by the fact that my amazing husband works right here in the trenches beside me. Last year, I shared here that I’d found little bits of time … Read more
I’m struggling this year. Struggling in my work life and as an author. So many things have gone pear-shaped these last few months, and it’s all left me in a strange no-man’s land, not quite sure where to go next. In my writing life, I finished two trilogies, and wrote a new novel with the intent of sending it out to snag an agent. I wrapped it up five months ago, and three agents, two denials and a failed attempt at Pitch Wars later, I still have no clear path. It’s left me questioning… well, just about everything. So I … Read more
It’s natural to be scared. I wake up every morning dreading what’s to come. The laws of gravity seem to have been overturned sometime in the last few years, and now up is down and down is up. We ignore climate change at our own peril, willfully and blindly, and instead fight political battles where one side brings a knife and the other brings a nuclear bomb. And tech companies continue their rampant disruption of everything we thought we knew, ripping up old social contracts with reckless abandon and questioning everything. Even truth. It’s natural to be scared. But then … Read more
My life is a carefully choreographed series of to-do lists. My to-dos on any given day are long enough to give even the most stalwart of to-doers pause, and only gets done through a strict daily application of effort and productivity that I have… well, not exactly perfected. But cobbled together in a fashion that usually works for me. But sometimes something (or somethings) come along to topple that intricate edifice, and everything goes to hell. Welcome to 2020. Although I have a better handle on my workload than I have in a long time there is, quite simply, too … Read more
May you live in interesting times. It’s an old, oft-quoted curse (though probably NOT of Chnese origin) that turns something good on its head and makes it something decidedly bad. And one that seems particularly apt for our own time. We’re hurtling headlong into the future with many of the things sci fi always promised us – computers that fit into our pockets, cars that drive themselves, and a global connection through social media that surpasses anything Asimov or Clarke ever imagined. Tthough I’m still waiting for my flying car, dammit! And yet instead of a futuristic utopia filled with … Read more