Category: Writing Tips | Page 4 | Speculative Fiction Writers Association

Writing Query Letters for Writers with Disabilities

June 9, 2023October 7, 2020 by Paul Martz

3 Query Letter Tips for Writers with Disabilities

Paul is a prizewinning speculative fiction author, technology blogger, and former punk rock drummer. His work is published or forthcoming at Uncharted Magazine, Amazing Stories, Creepy Podcast, and Punk Noir Magazine. 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. 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 …

Deep Third Person Point-Of-View

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

What if you want to write a story with a personal, emotional and introspective point of view? You would have two basic choices: First person: The heat of the dragon’s breath warmed my face, increasing the pounding in my chest. Deep 3rd person: The heat of the dragon’s breath warmed …

Five Lessons from NaNoWriMo

March 18, 2020December 1, 2019 by Paul Martz

NaNoWriMo seemed intimidating. Until last month, I’d only written short stories. How could a hack like me possibly write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days? What if my story is pathetic? Can’t they schedule this for a month without a major US holiday? Many of my writer friends were participating, …

Word Processor for Novels

March 18, 2020November 29, 2019 by R. C. Beckett

The best word processor is the one that connects your brain directly to the page. Alas, that’s not something speculative fiction writers can purchase, yet. If you are writing a novel, use a tool appropriate to the job. Any word processor works well for the first scene, but what about: …