advice « Storytellers Unplugged

Patchwork Dreaming

By Gerard Houarner, on February 4th, 2012

Or…”interrupted by a person on business from Porlock” — sustaining the vision of the story you want to tell as life’s storms rage around you.

Trust me, it’ll make sense.

Quite some time ago in a LOCUS interview, Jay Lake talked about the challenges of containing the story he’s working on in his mind, or living in [...]

I’m on a deadline and couldn’t think of anything to write about this month, so I dredged up an oldie but a goody from 2005 that is still as pertinent to me today as it was back then. I updated a few of the details but the sentiment is the same.

When people who’ve known me [...]

Disruptive Thinking

By Gerard Houarner, on January 4th, 2012

Looking through clip files for an SU piece this month, I came across a July 2010 article on disruptive thinking. A quick web search led to a ton of more material on the topic, including a military field manual on Intelligence, so I thought it might make a cool kick-off for the coming year.

Like so [...]

Promotional consideration

By Bev Vincent, on December 17th, 2011

At every convention I’ve attended, there’s a table full of promotional items. These usually consist of postcards or bookmarks, but sometimes there are fliers or little gadgets intended to entice people into purchasing a product. Usually a book, in my experience. Everyone is clamoring for everyone else’s attention, and if you don’t have the weight [...]

The Latest Best Argument Against Perfectionism

By Brian Hodge, on December 9th, 2011

We all have certain foibles whose antidotes we can’t be reminded of too often. One of mine is perfectionism.

I can’t really say when it started, but for years I’ve wrestled with periods of self-imposed expectations so acute that they verge on paralyzing. Putting something down becomes excruciatingly difficult, because, well, what if it doesn’t measure [...]

Asking questions

By Bev Vincent, on November 17th, 2011

Lately I’ve been asking a lot of questions. No, I’m not experiencing existential angst—I’ve been conducting interviews for a couple of project.

I am by no means a professional interviewer, but this isn’t my first experience, either, and I’ve learned a few things over the years that I thought I would share.

The first thing to keep [...]

Changes

By Gerard Houarner, on November 4th, 2011

As writers, we think and talk a lot about plot and characters, and how they form the structure of our stories.

In the past, I’ve talked about trying to approach writing from different perspectives or a different kind of “lens.” Change the camera lens and the view of the world changes a bit. (I know, stand [...]

Answering questions from an aspiring writer

By Bev Vincent, on October 17th, 2011

I recently agreed to be interviewed by a college undergrad for one of her classes. Their assignment was to interview someone working in a career that interested them. Since that interview won’t see the light of day outside of the student’s class, I thought I would post it here in lieu of my usual blatherings.

What [...]

Words count

By Bev Vincent, on September 17th, 2011

If you’ve ever read an author’s blog for any length of time, or followed his or her Facebook feed, you will no doubt be familiar with the tradition of posting sporadic or daily word counts. It is, perhaps, the only metric that writers have available to measure our productivity.

My favorite anecdote comes via Stephen King [...]

Writing as Life

By Gerard Houarner, on September 4th, 2011

In a recent BBC interview, Sir David Hare, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, playwright, and general curmudgeon, talked about writing –http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9568401.stm

Brief and bitter-sweet in the clip, he talks about having to write, and writing being one of the most important things in life even as he acknowledges that he makes films not very many people see.
Now, of course, [...]

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