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As the writer of a story, you have all the details in your head. You have this intricate picture in your mind and your primary task is to figure out which words to use to paint that picture in the imagination of your readers. But there’s the p…
Empathy. Politeness. Ethics. Compassion. All HUMAN emotions and precepts. Enter Siri, Alexa, Google Voice, Cortana, Echo and the new plethora of machine generated voice assistants. As “learning” machine generated assistants become more …
How to Effectively Take Criticism About Your Writing Without Turning Around and Making the Idiot Who Dared Savage Your Precious Prose the Murder Victim of a Rabid Two-Faced Alien with Mommy Issues in Your Great American Science Fiction Trilogy &nbs…
Let’s talk a bit about immersion. In your story, the purpose of immersion is to give your readers a feel for what’s actually going on, regardless of whether words are spoken. There are two schools of thought on what immersion actually …
Ready, Fire, Aim! A boon (first time I’ve used that word) to new writers, those without a quality writing partner or two, is the Critique Circle, a rough and ready proving ground for works in pr…
Golfers avoid saying “shank”. During a no-hitter, the team whose pitcher is flirting with history refuses to acknowledge what is happening. And among writers, people who will often talk about anyth…
I can hear one of you saying: “But there are more than five science fiction books worth reading twice!” I understand that, Reader Who States the Obvious to Irk Me Into Wh…
A lot of ideas for writers come from the unconscious. Ideas will oftimes surface as passing thoughts, unbidden and unexpected. While focusing on one endeavor, a thought will pop into your mind that is totally and abruptly out of place, intriguing a…
I picked it up because the paperback had a bright red cover with a dragon on it. It was right next to A Game of Thrones in that oft-visited corner bookstore on a sunny day in 1992. The title of the book was Chung Kuo: The Middle Kingdom, by David Wi…
I have only met a few really evil people in my life. One of them was a superior at a Fortune 500 company… a VP who was ruthless and cutthroat. He lied to people, He managed to set up and blame others for his mistakes, sabotaged competing …
