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“Underneath this shirt I have a big surprise … and it’s not that tattoo of Sam the guys are always razzing me about.” Nearly all storytelling relies, at some point, on hitting the reader with something she hasn’t seen coming. Or thinks she hasn’t seen coming, but actually has, because you, the author, have prepared [...] If you’ve been reading this column for any length of time, if you’ve been my student in a class or workshop, if you’ve heard me lecture about the art and craft of writing, you know I consider characterization the single most important element of good fiction. You are entitled to another [...] Last Sunday afternoon, I broke my ankle. (Posts with details here and here.) Obviously, I’ve spent most of my time since then stoned on first Percocet and then Oxycodone, so it’s good that the accident itself has given me a topic for a post–namely verisimilitude versus what my partner-in-crime, Elizabeth Bear, calls second order cliches. [...] Another Space and Time reading period has passed and it’s time to throw out a few notes for anyone who might care at least as much about the writing as about getting published. And, if you really only do care about being published, there’s some advice for you here, too. Mentioning credits in a cover letter [...] A few days ago, a friend of mine had a story rejected for an anthology because the editor ended up with too many stories that were written in first. Feeling discouraged, he said to me, “Do you think I should change my point of view? I hear editors don’t like stories written in first person.” Doubt [...] |
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