More Notes From An Editor…

Again a Lot of Reading Tonight…

Story after story after story so far tonight, the writing was good if not great. But I would be reading along and suddenly go “where is the story?”

Oops…

Another thing I noticed is flashbacks in openings. I guess the writer thinks that is a good way to help explain a character, but the reader (in this case me) is not grounded in the present of the story so when I  am taken back to some event in the past, I quit reading.

And back to point one, that flashback is a long ways from any story.

Oops…

You know, writers, you don’t have to fill the word count limit. And don’t show me you edited it down by having the words be seven words under the max. Just let the story be what it needs to be. That tells me right at the top you are a rewriter for the most part and that is a huge strike.

Oops…

Something besides fake details would be nice. You folks do understand that I have written about 35 Star Trek novels and a dozen of my own Seeders novels and another twenty Seeders stories. When you say the word “Bridge” on a space ship and don’t spend time describing what it looks like, smells like, and sounds like, I just laugh.

And as the editor of Pulphouse, when a writer does that, I imagine the “Bridge” is a chicken coop, a well-used, white-stained, stinking of rotted eggs chicken coop. The Chicken Coop Bridge. And you know, that seldom fits another writer’s story which then causes me to reject the story.

Writer’s fault. They let me the reader make up my own bridge look and feel and size.

Oops…

We even have a t-shirt on the WMG Writer Store that says, “Setting Would Be Nice.”

So some more reading fun for me. Bought one story last night, nothing so far tonight, but going back to it.