Fortune favors the bold, or so they say. I have been reading Stephen King's great treatise on the craft, On Writing. While I do intend to extract and discuss many key points of the book later, there is one bit that is likely not to make the cut for me: the discussion of proper writing spaces. This … Continue reading My Writing Space (Or How Not to Follow Stephen King’s Advice)
Tag: creative writing
More on First-Person Narrators
Bards and Sages: First-Person Narrative Pitfalls Here is another interesting discussion on the problems with first-person narrators. However, I personally disagree with the last point. There is no necessity that the first-person narrator must have a logical means to deliver the story to the reader. That is wholly unnecessary meta-thinking. The story is not connected … Continue reading More on First-Person Narrators
Narrative Perspective: 3rd Person Pure Limited or Limited Omniscient
I had another good discussion with my editor as we reviewed his comments on my book manuscript. Another interesting, you-know-it-but-don't-realize-it topic came up: narrative perspective. I generally write in third-person. It's standard form for fantasy, though less for sci-fi. I find most first-person writing to be lazy. It goes back to the age-old adage "show … Continue reading Narrative Perspective: 3rd Person Pure Limited or Limited Omniscient
Pratchett’s Wintersmith – The Concept of Reader Baggage as Explained Through Sarcasm
I have been working my way through Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel Wintersmith. As usual, it is a great tale, well-written with strong characters. One scene has stood out to me as being especially humorous, but also useful as commentary on writing. In the scene, lead character Tiffany—an almost 13-year-old witch—discovers a book on her bed and … Continue reading Pratchett’s Wintersmith – The Concept of Reader Baggage as Explained Through Sarcasm
Green Food
Storm Hamilton was sick of synthetic food; nothing could beat a real, juicy burger, but they were getting harder to find. He especially hated green—anything green—which never tasted like anything more than…green. When did green become a flavor? *This is a response to Three Line Tales, Week Forty-Four
Keeping Track of Submissions
Any good writer knows it takes a lot of work, and many attempts, to get published. I am relatively new to professional fiction writing, but I have started to develop systems to make the process run more smoothly. Below is my method for keeping track of everything. My experience as a staff NCO in the … Continue reading Keeping Track of Submissions
Fireball – One Word, One Story
This is a prompt for the author of One Word, One Story. The word prompt is "fireball." And I'm going to add the rule that it must be a S.F. or Fantasy story, since that's what I do. I sit on the cold stone looking up at the glowing sky. Our once red star flares … Continue reading Fireball – One Word, One Story
Concocting Vengeance
"Is this the one? The one that makes the vampires burn? Good, then whip me up a poison; I have someone to meet." *This is a response to Three Line Tales, Week Forty-Three
Learning, to Let Go – A (very) Short Story
Sparrow looked down at the massive shark lying on the table. It reeked something terrible and she worried how that stench would intensify once she cut it open. She was at the Liminal stages of becoming a true fisherman, but she didn’t know if she could see it through. Of course the older veterans had … Continue reading Learning, to Let Go – A (very) Short Story
The Mountain, Part 1
Digging through my archives, I found this little gem. This was my final project for my second level short story class in college. I remember the instructor because he looked remarkably like J.J. Abrams before Abrams was a thing. We read Revolutionary Road in that class and the rest of my peers were trying their … Continue reading The Mountain, Part 1
JM Williams 