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Notes From An Editor… Part 1
Make It Interesting… When an editor reads a story, just as with any reader, they take their own personal likes and dislikes into their decision to buy or not buy. This is why you can often tell an editor’s voice on a project after reading numbers of issues or anthologies they have put together. That “voice” is their likes and dislikes coming through. I am no different. I have certain basics I look for in a Pulphouse story. First, stunningly well written, meaning the author is in charge of their craft. Second, something a little different about the story in some fashion or another. Third, it has to be interesting…
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Advice From A Fiction Editor
Might Work As A Title… I think I will call this series “Advice from a Fiction Editor.” I have about ten more stories to read that are from workshops as assignments, then I will change out hats and read as the Pulphouse Fiction Magazine editor. Pulphouse is not open for submissions and never will be, so what am I reading? Backers of the Pulphouse Kickstarter in July get monthly prompts and using the prompt can send me a story for consideration. I did this last year and I had a blast and I bought some stories. Great fun. And what is interesting is that the writers are actually (because they…
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Kris Reding Program…
Something Really Fun and Limited Kris Is Doing… She has decided to help a few writers with their writing craft over the next six months. Here is how she put it in her own words on her Patreon page… Kristine Kathryn Rusch On Reading It’s been quite the year. Even though Dean and I have found it hectic, a lot of good has happened. I feel like I’ve recaptured a lot of joy in my life, much in writing, and even more in reading and editing. I do miss a lot of the reading I do for the in-person workshops. To think about stories on the macro and micro levels…
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Dedicated Fiction-Writing Computer…
A Critical Part of Any Fiction-Writer’s Life… Many of you have heard me at one time or one place or another talk about the critical nature of having a dedicated fiction-writing computer. There are a ton of varied reasons for this. But I have been sort of shocked this week at learning how few writers have them and then wonder why their production is not what they want it to be. It is 2024 as I write this. Our computers are full of about a zillion distractions, from emails to YouTube to Facebook and on and on and on. A dedicated fiction writing computer has one thing on it… A…
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What Is Prolific?
Got That Question a Number of Times… Mostly because of my Pulp Speed post and then the post about systems slowing a writer down. My answer the question “What is prolific?” is always “It depends.” Pulp Speed of any level if you are turning the words into books and stories and getting them out on the market would be prolific. Especially if done every year. If your goal is to just write a few books before you move on, 50,000 words a year would be fast enough for you, but no one would ever call you prolific. Writers who tend to be called prolific after a few years are writers…
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Writing Process…
Heinlein’s Rules and Pulp Speed… Had a great (but sad) back-and-forth discussion today with a writer who read my blog last night and said Pulp Speed would never be for him. I had no problem with that. Every writer is different and that’s great. Then this writer reminded me that he wrote rough (and sloppy) first drafts and rewrote three and four times and is lucky to get 100,000 words of fiction a year out, even though he spends three to five hours a day at it. I mentioned Heinlein’s Rules and how his writing method had trapped me for six years before I found Heinlein’s Rules and Bradbury and…
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Pulp Speed Post Once Again…
Just For Fun… I wanted to bring this Pulp Speed post back again just for fun for me to read again as I work to ramp back up. I figured I could use it again as well. (grin) (I wrote this post around 2014, then brought it forward to 2016, then 2017, and just about every year or so since, skipping 2022. Last time here was April. And we do have a classic workshop on how to do it.) Not at all sure why this idea of writing at Pulp Speed sort of hits me right. I think because it flies in the face of all the myths. A writer has…
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Your Writing Method Often Holds You Back…
Sometimes Writer’s Block Is Basic Like Structure… Spring of 1975. I had just sold in the fall of 1974 my first two short stories (and I had also been selling a lot of poetry.) I felt that even though I had just sold two short stories back-to-back, I felt I needed to learn how to write (a good instinct.) So I turned to writers who did not know how to write to teach me, but they seemed like they did. They talked a great game and their answers fit right into the common knowledge. Oops… (Good instinct to keep learning, wrong execution.) My method for writing the first two short…
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Telling Lies…
Professional Writers Don’t Have Writer’s Block… Can’t begin to tell you how many times I have heard that, and how many times over the decades I said it about myself. And I believed that lie I kept telling myself and others. I totally believed it, even though I had years and years at different times I fought forms of writer’s block. I just never called it “writer’s block” because my belief system was that “writer’s block” was an excuse. Uh, no. Granted, what I do is sit alone in a room and make stuff up. Not a hard thing to do, but wow when it came to writer’s block, I…
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Early Bird Discount Extended…
WRITER’S BLOCK FREEDOM Early Bird Discount… Discount now extended to Thursday, September 26th at midnight West Coast time. Why, because the discount is the difference between getting into the class and not for some. And we had a number of people ask if they could have a few extra days and when we said yes to one we wanted to make the extension for everyone. And remember, this starts on October 1st. Not very far away. WRITER’S BLOCK FREEDOM PART 1… October/November (starts October 1st) 9 weeks of classes, 8 assignments, 7 webinars. WRITER’S BLOCK FREEDOM PART 2… January/Feb (starts January 7th ) 9 weeks of classes, 8 assignments, 9…