Month: <span>March 2024</span>
Month: March 2024

Month: March 2024

Ergonomics for Writers

Ergonomics is the study of humans in their work environment. The part of it that matters to us is how it relates to keeping us healthy and safe and avoiding aches and pains and repetitive motion injuries. A comfortable writer is a productive writer, so don’t skimp on your office setup.  Everyone is comfortable in slightly different positions. So, before we get into the “correct” ways to work, let’s look at some general advice that should always trump whatever specific advice you get if the two are in conflict.   What The Experts Say  Correct ergonomics, according to the experts, means...

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Should I Write Dystopian?

Dystopian fiction is not for the faint of heart. Not necessarily horror, it still has a darkness that creeps into your soul — then burrows in. Even if the hero triumphs — not a guarantee in this genre — the knowledge of how close we will always be to this kind of future remains. If you can handle that darkness, or if you already swim in it, then dystopian novels might be a natural fit for you.

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Should I Write Time Travel?

The mind-bending twists and turns it takes to conceive and execute a good time travel tale with all the potential paradoxes and contradictions are not for everybody. But if you can envision (or carefully map out on sticky notes or a red-yarned murder board) the connections of your characters and consequences across multiple timelines, then have it.

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Should I Write History?

Back to history Do you read a lot of history books? Even more than fiction? A lot of writers do, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should write one. A lot of the skills of a novelist will transfer to writing history books, but not all of them. The research you do for a novel? Trivial compared to what a historian does. You must dig into primary sources and be able to interpret them as to the prejudices and plans of the original author. You must come to conclusions and be able to defend them, because they will be attacked....

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Should I Write Cyberpunk?

Back to cyberpunk Born of the cold war and the onset of the digital age, cyberpunk is the SF genre of disaffected youth. Technology is feared and desired in equal measure. Would you be the first one to put a shunt into your neck to get direct access to the net? Would you modify your body and mind, melding tech to flesh and mind to machine? You should consider writing cyberpunk if… You should probably try a different genre if… The formula for success with a cyberpunk book is pretty straightforward. The hard part of all this is writing a...

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Show Don’t Tell: The Bad Writing Advice That Sounds Good

If you’ve been a writer for more than say, an hour, you’ve already received numerous pieces of advice on how to do it. And while a lot of it may actually be good advice, there is undoubtably a great deal that is bad. Problem is, some of that bad advice may appear to be good. Even worse, some of that bad advice is widely accepted as good. “Show Don’t Tell” is one of those. It is one of the most pervasive pieces of bad advice masquerading as good out there. The problem isn’t that it’s necessarily bad advice, it’s that...

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Should I Write Science Fiction?

Do you love technology and innovation, the vast reaches of the universe and the tiniest specks of quarks and leptons? Do you think about the problems of today and wonder how in the future they will be solved or exacerbated? Do you wonder what comes NEXT?

Then science fiction (Sci-fi, SF, speculative fiction) is for you.

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