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Keep The Action Going – Part II
Read more: Keep The Action Going – Part IIA few days ago I was exercising in the fitness facility at the apartment complex where I live, and turned on one of the TVs installed there. I scanned the channels and came across a movie channel showing “Titanic.” Now, those of you who read this blog and know me personally may also know I’ve…
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The “Was” That Was
Read more: The “Was” That WasEvery now and then I run across, or am asked about, the admonition that new writers learn, to limit the use of “to be” verbs in their writing. Instead of writing, “he is/was,” or “they are/were,” instructors say, “Try something else.” It’s good advice, as having a bunch of “was” or “were” in one paragraph…
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Keep The Action Going
Read more: Keep The Action GoingLately I’ve been watching reruns of the TV crime drama “Major Crimes.” I like the action as the detectives of the Major Crimes unit solve the case. The show is well written and the cases deliciously complicated, which keeps me guessing as to the identity of the perpetrator. But the one major drawback of the…
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High School–A New Perspective
Read more: High School–A New PerspectiveI’m not by any means a school administrator or teacher or school superintendent or member of a school board, though I do have a high school diploma and college and postgraduate degrees, and I have taught a few science courses in college and postgraduate education. But as an outside observer, I’ve been watching high school…
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Mental Telepathy In Science Fiction
Read more: Mental Telepathy In Science FictionI’m currently working on a story of about 23,000 words (that makes it a “novella” or “novelette,” depending on your definition) that has to do with humans from Earth who come in contact with beings on another planet who communicate almost entirely by mental telepathy. Their brains are so big—maybe 50 to 100 times the…
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The Pikes Peak Writers Conference–2019
Read more: The Pikes Peak Writers Conference–2019The Pikes Peak Writers Conference for 2019, held yearly in Colorado Springs, was last weekend, May 3-5, 2019. Here’s a few impressions and takeaways I gleaned from the conference. Not comprehensive by any means. Several speakers at the sessions I attended used the acronym “GMC” in their talks. This stands for “Goal/Motivation/Conflict,” three factors totally…
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Space Opera: A Definition
Read more: Space Opera: A DefinitionI have had, over the past 20 years or so that I’ve been trying to write science fiction, and on one or two occasions, to answer the question, “What is space opera?” It’s a fair question given that space opera is the type of science fiction I write, and that it is probably the most…
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TNR vs. Courier; Pica vs. Elite
Read more: TNR vs. Courier; Pica vs. EliteDo you remember “pica” and/or “elite” type on typewriters? Way back when we didn’t have personal computers, and everything we wrote was either by hand or on a typewriter, we had to choose between pica type, which resulted in 10 characters per inch, or elite, at 12 characters per inch. I’ve had several typewriters in…
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“House Made of Dawn”: Review and Commentary
Read more: “House Made of Dawn”: Review and CommentaryI’ve just completed reading N. Scott Momaday’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, House Made of Dawn. (It was awarded the prize in 1969.) A beautifully written book, it is what I would call a very “image intense” book; it utilizes many descriptions of places, people, events, dreams, etc., to draw the reader in. Descriptions of the desert…
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The Hardest Part About Writing
Read more: The Hardest Part About WritingThis particular post is directed largely to my writing friends, though many of you who are not writers—that is, writers in a more or less full-time sense—might get a similar take-away message that could be applied to other professions and activities. What I’m talking about here is the most difficult thing I have encountered since starting…
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Stakes and Motivation
Read more: Stakes and MotivationA couple of weeks ago I sent the first 50 pages of the manuscript of my first science-fiction novel to a professional editor for evaluation. It had been read by a number of non-professionals, including other beginning writers, non-writer friends, and those in several critique groups, but never by a professional. The editor was almost effusive in her praise…