Tag: fiction
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Friday’s Findings: The Consortium Saga Omnibus Release
Several years ago, I began imagining a galaxy of worlds united in peace and prosperity—well, mostly united. I couldn’t resist adding a few snags. At the heart of it all was a starship: a commercial vessel like a luxury liner, except instead of cruising oceans, it sailed through the cosmos. In this galaxy, travel between…
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Friday’s Findings: Name-dropping
The other day, I typed out a paragraph for the science fiction novella I’m working on, and I realized I’ve had this aching question for years: when do I use a character’s name and when do I use a pronoun instead? Are there formal rules for this sort of thing? When do I use my…
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Friday’s Findings: Beginnings and Ends for a Scene
I’ve been writing a lot of scenes lately, and I am constantly asking myself, “Am I beginning all my scenes the same way?” Am I always starting with dialogue? And what about ending a scene? How can I make sure I’m not always ending my scenes in the same way? Are some of them cliffhangers,…
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Friday’s Findings: Never stop learning
Never stop learning your craft. I’m a little surprised that some people I know who like to write aren’t interested in further training. I guess I understand. but I like taking online classes about writing fiction. I have to be careful, because I don’t want learning to replace actual writing. Writers can spend a little…
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Friday’s Findings: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
I just finished Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 10th edition, and here are some takeaways: “Most writing is done between the mind and the hand, not between the hand and the page.” “Keep the journal regularly, at least at first. It doesn’t matter what you write and it doesn’t matter very…
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Who has time to write a blog? No one.
I’m at the coffee shop eating my oatmeal with walnuts, brown sugar and raisins. I’m thinking, “I want to write that blog entry on why I switched to writing my novel in first person.” But first I have a class I start teaching tonight and I haven’t outlined the syllabus. I need to mulch the…
Andrew M. Friday 