Hmm…

Tag: writing

  • A Thought from Lord Byron

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    harmamae
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    O nature’s noblest gift – my grey goose-quill! Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, Torn from thy parent bird to form a pen, That mighty instrument of little men! – Lord Byron How very delightful to hear your pen listens to your thoughts so well! Mine is hardly so obedient…

  • The Trouble With Modern Romance

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    harmamae
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    The trouble with modern romance novels is that our culture sees no reason for two people who are in love not to be together. This significantly cuts down on the potential for conflict in the novel. In comparison, Jane Austen had it easy. I’m going to use Jane Austen as an example for a second,…

  • Blah Days

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    harmamae
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    Five Reasons Today is Blah, and, Is There Any Hope For the Future?  Yes, I get these too. Far too often, probably. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, after five and a half weeks of excitement in Brazil, that I’d have a blah day once in a while when I got home again. Still, blah…

  • Getting It Right the First Time

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    harmamae
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    To Revise Or Not To Revise, That Is The Question… Recently, I’ve been hearing a barrage of arguments from two different points of view – those who believe a good writer will efficiently produce a clean draft on the first go, and those who believe in multitudes of revisions. They both make good points, but…

  • A Meaningful Universe?–Defining Fantasy

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    harmamae
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    Fantasy, according to Crawford Kilian, takes place in a morally meaningful universe, and that is why readers like it so much. “In fantasy, meaning is not something we slap on from the outside, it’s built right into everything from the rocks and trees to the political system.” I do love fantasy, possibly because I believe…

  • Half a Million Words of Garbage

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    harmamae
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    They say every writer has half a million words of garbage in them, and you need to get most of them out before really establishing a writing career. This makes me glad I started writing early. (My earliest memory of writing is sitting at the kitchen table, asking Mom to spell each word out individually…

  • Prolific Vs. Perfectionist – What is the Best Way to a Lasting Writing Career?

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    harmamae
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    Is it better to churn out hundreds of books that are mediocre, or just a couple that are really, really good? A few weeks ago, I mentioned how it is a general rule that writers need to publish around three novels before they establish their name in the industry. This means, of course, that a…

  • Travel? Research? – Getting Your Setting Right

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    harmamae
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    OR: Write What You Know, Or Risk What You Don’t Know  I always wonder if writers have visited or lived in the places they write about, and if they haven’t, how they feel comfortable enough writing about places they’ve never been. I’m always incredibly afraid of messing the place up and getting some hypercritical reader…

  • It’s the Readers’ Fault! Why Bad Writing is Called Good

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    harmamae
    in ,

    OR: Don’t Blame Them, They Didn’t Notice the Difference Anyway Authors agonize over metaphors. They might spend ages debating word choice. They careful revise their sentence structure. What would you say if someone told you readers rarely notice this kind of thing anyway? I’m a poor student, and like many a poor student I participate…

  • Update on the Splayed Novel

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    harmamae
    in

    As you can see from the picture, my organizational system for keeping track of the plot of my novel is getting unwieldy. (For comparison, see the picture in this post). On the plus side, I am one tenth of the way through! The trick now is to not bog down in the middle part, but…