The Daily
Take the cat to the vet, run to the grocery store, stop by the library and return a book, deal with the irrigating, work on the tractor, make breakfast, do the dishes, do the daily cat chores (litter box, food,…
Obvious
At critique last night, several pieces had things that were obvious to the writer but left the reader confused or at least not seeing what the author did. It doesn’t solve all examples of lack of obviousness but showing sure…
Points of View
I was involved in an interesting conversation on points of view. The more salient points involved combining first and third, limited and omniscient. It turns out that what I like is 3rd person omniscient, treated like limited most of the…
Writers are interesting, particularly ones who write a lot.
One of the things I like about writing are all the choices there are to make. If you don’t make them consciously, then they happen anyway. You just don’t get the option to make them with due deliberation. There are…
Chapter Opening Scene Re-writes
For the opening scene of the 3rd chapter of my WIP novella, I wrote it three different ways. I used different character points of view, heavy on the narration, world-building, heavy on the dialog and action, and the last heavy…
SciFi-Fantasy Worldbuilding
Using worldbuilding to develop the characters and advance the story takes more work than I thought. Who and what the characters are and what drives them is often determined by their surroundings. It doesn’t just add flavor and uniqueness to…
Waking Up
Waking up, book in hand, dreams of a story unwritten spinning around. Putting down a fresh bowl of water for the cat, she meows and brushes up for affection. Being a kitty family, the main social skill these days. Doing…
Rural Morning
Driving into town this morning to mail some bills, I had to stop. One of my neighbors’ tractor had broken down on the road. He had been there a while because several pickups were clustered around it. Valuable mechanical knowledge…
Using images to world build
I try to find images of places that I am going to write about in my fantasy stories. Occasionally, I find one after I have written a good chunk of the story. The above image is one of those. It…
The meaning of Show don’t Tell
Focusing on the ‘me’ for a moment, I have learned and done so many things that have improved the trades, crafts, and my life in general, that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t been involved with other people. It’s easy…