I remember the days when the encyclopedia salesman would come to the door, selling leather-bound sets of books with gold-dusted pages. In those ancient caveman days, the biggest problem with the encyclopedias, was that they would quickly get outdated. Science, the global political landscape and technology are often always in flux, which caused the print […]
Month: August 2008
Pros and Cons of Writing Movie Reviews
Since Fridays usually end up being movie night in our neck of the woods, I thought I’d focus on the pros and cons of writing movie reviews and how–especially if you’ve never written one–they can help your writing. When you sit down and write any sort of a review–be it a movie, book or even […]
Oh, the Writer’s Life for Me… With Beer? Negative Self-Talk?
So here I am again, in the valley of a long series of peaks and valleys. Like most writers, I do not live a linear life. Linear — that mathematical “straight” line summed up by a series of experiences that happen at specific milestones. Grade school, high school, college. College sweetheart. Internship. Job. Marriage. 2.5 […]
Just How Long Does it Take to Make a “Name” for Yourself?
Fame, fortune and glory. Something that every writer dreams of, but no one is quite sure what being “famous” actually entails. Do you know who Robert Bloch is? How about Leigh Brackett or C.L. Moore? Each of these prolific writers hit it “big”: Bloch wrote the horror fiction that the movie Psycho was based on, […]
Fiction Editing: the Do’s and Don’ts of Editing Professionally
Now that I have some time this week to post, I’m going to pick up where I left off when I was discussing editing. Recently, we’ve talked about what an editor does and what the difference is between content editing and copy editing. Now I’d like to talk specifically about fiction, because the fiction process […]