Category: Writing Tips | Page 2 | Speculative Fiction Writers Association

3rd Person Omniscient POV

October 6, 2022April 24, 2021 by R. C. Beckett

The third person omniscient point of view is the most open and flexible POV available to writers. As the name implies, an omniscient narrator is all-seeing and all-knowing. — David Mamet Once a writer decides to use a third person point of view (POV) the next question is: what is …

Expert Advice from a New Writer

April 1, 2023January 22, 2021 by Paul Martz

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 …

Short Story Elements

October 6, 2022December 16, 2020 by R. C. Beckett

Short stories are fun to read because they pack an unexpected emotional punch. However, “short” does not mean easy to write, or a formless type of expression. Quite the contrary, they are written and rewritten numerous times with herculean effort to be efficient, banish loose ends, conclude with a plot …

Writing Query Letters for Writers with Disabilities

June 9, 2023October 7, 2020 by Paul Martz

3 Query Letter Tips for Writers with Disabilities

Paul Martz

Paul is a prizewinning science 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. Paul’s edgy, techno-smart stories were influenced by his career as a virtual reality software developer and the time he spent drumming for punk and alternative bar bands. He puts his protagonists in bad situations, then makes sure they end up worse off. Originally from Flint, MI, Paul resides in Colorado, where he tries to avoid reliving his punk rock days. He is still trying to teach his cat to play drums.

paulmartz.com

Writing the Great Ending

July 25, 2020July 24, 2020 by R. C. Beckett

Writers are a creative group of people who have invented several satisfying ways to end a story. The Straightforward: The story problem is solved, conflict is resolved and the main character’s journey ends. This is the most common ending, a “happy ending”. The Shocker: Typical of horror, crime and thriller …

Plot is the Beating Heart of a Story

July 21, 2020July 19, 2020 by R. C. Beckett

What allows an author to convert something familiar, important or truthful into a story that is interesting? Simple answer: a plot. A story is NOT your diary, your years working as a gallbladder surgeon or the truth that advertisements lie. Readers want a plot that pulls them from the beginning …

Keys to Improving the Flow in Your Writing

July 5, 2020May 1, 2020 by R. C. Beckett

Editors, publishers, literary agents, and readers love edgy and quirky writing – but not at the expense of writing flow.— Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen Flow in writing is difficult to define, but readers always seem to recognize it. A flowing science fiction novel sucks the reader into the story, makes the unbelievable …

The Big Reveal and Plot Twists

June 19, 2020April 15, 2020 by R. C. Beckett

The best way to create an effective “big reveal” is to have characters search for information, an object, or a person, so that their search leads to the big reveal — even if the big reveal is NOT the thing they were actually looking for. Orson Scott Card Fiction writing …

Suspension of Disbelief

March 18, 2020March 1, 2020 by R. C. Beckett

Any fiction book relies on suspension of disbelief by the reader. They forgo belief in some aspect of the real world to believe in the story-world. Science fiction and fantasy stretch belief to the limits requiring genre authors to exert great care to avoid “breaking the spell”. At some point …

Point Of View

May 11, 2023February 7, 2020 by R. C. Beckett

Trends In a list of the twenty most popular science fictions books of 2019, 60% were written in third-person point-of-view (POV), 40% in 1st person and none in second person. Although the story in each novel is very inventive, the authors adhere to the rules of point-of-view, much like punctuation …