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Tools of a Writer
Read more: Tools of a WriterI’ve seen a few comments on social media in the past few weeks concerning writing and what makes a good writer and good written copy. Most of what I’ve read is very general in content, and ranges from the A to Z of the instruction on good writing. I can’t comment on all of that,…
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The Adventure Story
Read more: The Adventure StoryI just finished re-reading The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, the precursor to the well-known Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Hobbit is an interesting book, filled with elves, goblins, trolls, dwarves, eagles, one huge dragon named Smaug, and of course, the hero of the story, the one and only hobbit, Mr. Bilbo Baggins. It is…
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To Quit or Not to Quit
Read more: To Quit or Not to QuitAs someone who has come to writing lately—and I’m talking here about writing fiction, especially science fiction novels and short stories—after a career spent doing scientific research and writing scientific papers and other science-related articles, I’ve seen, met, talked to, and listened to a lot of other writers, both established and newbies, young and old;…
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The First Writer
Read more: The First WriterWho was the first writer? That is, who was the first person to set down on some surface—a rock, a leaf, a cave wall, in short, some surface that could reasonably retain the “writing” for at least a short period of time—a representation of an object that could be transferred to another person? It seems…
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Who Is A Person?
Read more: Who Is A Person?Okay, now. We’ve been told in recent months, if not in recent years, that we’re supposed to state our pronouns. We’re supposed to tell everyone, and that includes everyone, what pronouns we want people to use when they aren’t using the very specific proper noun that includes our name, i.e., our given name and family…
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Suspending Disbelief
Read more: Suspending DisbeliefAs a member of the science-fiction writing community, I have to deal with a phenomenon that probably comes up in our genre more often and much more strongly than in any other genre, that of the “suspension of disbelief.” This refers to the fact that in science fiction we write stories that utilize objects, phenomena,…
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Six Grammar Miscues To Watch Out For
Read more: Six Grammar Miscues To Watch Out ForI’m not a writer with many published works to my credit, but I have done a lot or reading—of books, articles, short stories, essays, even some poetry. I’ve read most every different kind of writing from published material to unpublished manuscripts from writers of all stages in their journey toward publication. As a result, I…
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After You Press “Send”
Read more: After You Press “Send”As an author of absolutely no repute whatsoever, I have a tendency to send out stories I have written to editors, agents, even magazines in an attempt to try and get published, or at the very least get representation. There comes a time when the writing of a particular article or story is finished (at…