Category Archives: Struggles with the Craft

Buried in Revisions

Posted on June 6, 2009 by Pete

I’m currently buried in grammar, plot, and character while I try to finish the second re-write of Alchemist. I’ve been, in the words of good friend Taylor Anderson, “writing my fool tail off” in an effort to prepare for an impromptu writing workshop that I’ll be attending next weekend. I intend to begin submissions again shortly after Continue reading →

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Some thoughts on rejection

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Pete

It sucks.

No, really.

“Entropy of Memory” was just rejected today by Clarkesworld Magazine. (This is a great publication very much deserving its Hugo nomination this year. They reportedly publish only twelve stories from slush each year, and they get hundreds of submissions. I would have been honored to be included in their magazine, but I fully understand the demands of the market, the state of the genre, and my own previously unpublished nature.) This makes a total of seventy-three (73) rejections for me over the past several years. Some of them are shorts submitted to various markets, most of them are query letters to agents, and a couple of them are attempts at getting one of my novels out of the slush pile. Continue reading →

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Epic vs. Popcorn – The Debate Rages

Posted on September 9, 2008 by Pete

Well, maybe saying that the debate “rages” is a bit much, but this is a topic much on my mind lately. In the science fiction and fantasy realm, there are (roughly) three aspirations of any author. They are, in no … Continue reading →

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Struggles with the Craft IV – Sitting Down and Writing

Posted on August 7, 2008 by Pete

For the amateur writer, this is perhaps the hardest thing of all–sitting down and writing. Writing doesn’t pay my bills. My blog would earn only minimal cash (and looks like it would earn barely enough to cover my hosting costs … Continue reading →

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Struggles with the Craft III – Self-Criticism

Posted on July 16, 2008 by Kate

I’ve been wrestling with my first completed novel (Loss of Innocence) for a while now. Kate and I had initally said that we were going to podcast it in its entirety throughout the year until we were finished, but as … Continue reading →

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Struggles with the Craft II – Point of View

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Pete

Does anyone really think about point of view? The answer to this question: If you’re doing it correctly, then no, they don’t.  When someone notices that you have a point of view problem, the issue with your work isn’t necessarily … Continue reading →

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Struggles with the Craft I – Dialogue

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Pete

As my visit to DragonCon and my attendance to Viable Paradise looms on the horizon, I felt that it might be prudent to examine what my struggles are with the craft of writing. Doing so helps me to identify, in … Continue reading →

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