Monthly Archives: January 2016

To Eligibility Post or Not to Eligibility Post?

Let us begin by acknowledging that this is a rancorous period, full of clashing agendas, bewildered onlookers, and all too many innocents caught in the crossfire. And that right now making an eligibility post particularly mentioning Hugo Award categories like Related Work is something that some of us are circling and wondering about.

And my answer is yes. Yes, you should. Why?
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Posted in career | Tagged , , , , , | 75 Comments

Class Excerpt: On Story Basics and Ways into Stories

I’m finishing up the Moving from Idea to Draft class, or rather finishing up the writing phase and still need to shoot a couple dozen little videos, ugh. But I wanted to share this from the introduction to the class because I thought it might be useful for some people plus maybe tantalize a few into trying one of my on-demand or live classes.

I begin with some basics of story mechanics. Quite probably much of it will be familiar — feel free to skim if you feel like you’ve heard all of this before.
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Posted in Writing | Tagged , , , , | 22 Comments

Fare Thee Well, Fellow Traveller

I heard the news about David Hartwell’s accident last night; it makes me inexpressibly sad to see one of the people who have shaped the speculative fiction landscape for so long pass. Others will tell you of all his wonderful accomplishments; I want to celebrate his life by recounting a few moments of it that I was privileged enough to share.
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Posted in daily life | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

SFWA Effort to Support Crowdfunding

We just launched a very cool new effort. Here’s the release: Crowdfunded self-publishing has emerged as a viable and increasingly popular path to creative and financial success for writers, and we continue to develop new initiatives to assist our members … Continue reading

Posted in SFWA | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

On Clarion and Privilege and the Internets

People are, understandably, saying that the equation clarion + student = pro writer is not the only way you can reach that particular sum, and they are absolutely correct, although the drama is — as is often the case on the Internet — a bit hyperbolic.

This is the fact of F&SF writing — there are people disadvantaged by gender, or race, or sexuality or other physical circumstances. But there’s also a big group — which contains a disproportionate number of those differing physically — affected by economic issues. Continue reading

Posted in career | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 90 Comments

Changes to My Newsletter

I’ve made some changes to my monthly newsletter about my online classes, most importantly that it’s going to a more frequent mailing rate but I’m also adding some cool stuff to compensate.
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Posted in career | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Coming Up This Weekend: How to Avoid Infodumps and WTF Do I Do Now?

At least, those are my mental tags for the two classes. The first is Description and Delivering Information, and it’s how to get what you need on the page while avoiding big clumps of information and as-you-know-Bob that make a reader stumble and fall right out of the story.
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Posted in classes & workshops | Tagged , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Welcome to the Funhouse, 2016

f I were truly organized, this would have appeared on New Year’s Day, but I had a very nice weekend instead. Now it’s Monday, and I’ve had my coffee and homemade yogurt and done some stuff. I’m feeling good about the year and have made the usual sorts of resolutions. Things that I’m trying in 2016:
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Posted in daily life | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments