Paul Martz

Paul is a prizewinning speculative fiction author, technology blogger, and former punk rock drummer. At age six, he saw 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen, which lead him to a collection of Clarke’s short stories and a lifelong insatiable appetite for mind-bending science fiction. His work is published or forthcoming at Uncharted Magazine, Amazing Stories, Creepy Podcast, Sci-Fi Lampoon, and others. Originally from Flint, MI, Paul resides in Colorado, where he tries to avoid reliving his punk rock days.
Cowboy writing with pen next to a campfire

Showdown, Don’t Tell: Keeping a Consistent Narrative Voice

Fiction writers have a lot of rules. “Show, don’t tell” sits near the top of the rulebook, right up there with point of view (POV), use of said tags, and eliminating adverbs. But sometimes we follow those rules straight into a literary box canyon. So take off your cowboy hat, …

A humanoid robot posing like Rodin's The Thinker, sitting with chin resting on hand.

Creating Convincing AI Characters

You’ve got a brilliant idea for a story about an AI. Time to get writing. You sit at your desk. You boot your laptop. You dismiss those notifications about pending updates. You launch your word processor. You spend five minutes setting the font, paragraph indent, and line spacing. At last, …

Two wrestlers, one flying through the air headed for slamming the other.

Submission Slammers

I write short stories. The investment is light, the turnaround is fast, and with every story, I feel my writing improves. While many members of Speculative Fiction Writers are developing novel-length manuscripts, short stories provide an excellent creative break. It might be just what you need to get unblocked. To …

Title overlying a peaceful waterfall

Keeping the Words Flowing with Flow State

I attended the recent RMFW Gold Conference looking for ways to increase my creative output. It takes me months to write a 4k-word short story. Unless I become more productive, completing a novel will be Herculean. Nikki Terpilowski’s session on flow state promised a solution, but flow state sounded kind …

Alien words written on a blackboard with chalk

Language in Science Fiction [@PaulSkewMatrix @NorWesCon]

One look at the schedule for Norwescon (Seattle, April 6-9) told me I had some tough choices to make. Without a time machine, I’d have to miss many fascinating sessions. But I could not skip Language in Science Fiction, paneled by authors David D. Levine, Erica L. Satifka, and Joseph …

A Computer Wrote My Story

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly powerful tool for authors, providing new opportunities to generate creative fiction. With the ability to analyze vast amounts of data and understand natural language, AI can help authors generate new ideas, develop characters, and even write entire stories. In this article, we’ll explore …

Four Steps to Revising My Opening with a Critiki Bar Hangover

Ugh. I just woke up with a wicked headache, and my tongue feels like it’s taped to the roof of my mouth. That’s what I get for drinking at The Critiki Bar, my pick for best workshop of the 2022 RMFW Gold Conference. The bartenders (er, moderators) were Katharine Sands, …

Paul Martz Named 2022 Roswell Award Finalist

Paul Martz is administering self-defibrillation after finding out that his story, Dr. Harriet Hartfeld’s Home for Aging AIs, is a finalist for the 2022 Omega Sci-Fi Roswell Award. Prizewinners will be announced during the May 21 awards ceremony, in which finalist stories will be read aloud by celebrity narrators. Attend …

Expert Advice from a New Writer

Writing advice surrounds me. Everyone, it seems, is an expert. One day, all that information on self-publishing, pitching a story, and writing query letters will come in handy, but for now I feel like I’m drowning in unhelpful advice. Sink with me to the bottom of the writing-advice ocean, where …