Tying it all together

Finally, after a lot of replotting and revisioning, I’m at that stage with the novel where I’m attempting to pull all of the various story threads together into something resembling a neat conclusion. As of the latest revisions there are eleven main plot elements that somehow need to be gathered and tied and trimmed into […]

More on the muse

Reading back yesterday’s thoughts on Hal’s marvellous muse post, there’s the possibility that readers might see an implied criticism along the lines of being too precious about one’s “art” when a professional writer should be more concerned with seeing to the requirements of one’s “business”**. Obviously, that’s not what I meant. Not at all. Every […]

The trained MonkeyBrat

Just read on Hal Duncan’s blog possibly the most accurate and entertaining description of muse-wrangling and dealing with so-called writer’s block Every Committed To The Page**, and it delighted me almost as much as the awesome news that he’s finally finished TESTAMENT. There is SO much truth in what Hal says. It is *most* true […]

Novels, and me

Following this morning’s reading post, I had a nice twitter conversation with Juliet McKenna about how one of the greatest skills a novelist can learn is to hide their Grand Plan sufficiently to make the characters’ actions seem naturalistic throughout the book. You’re saying: “of course it is, that’s obvious!” I know you are. And […]

Setting ones balls in order

I’m a bit of a juggler. At least I attempt to be. I’m always writing something and I’m always doing something with music, usually multiple things. I tell myself that I can keep all of these balls in the air at the same time, but usually I end up concentrating primarily on one and the […]

Author v Reader

When you’re a musician you learn very quickly to listen differently. You break a track down, listen to individual instruments, how they’re balanced, how they’re played, what production techniques have been used. The song? It has to be really strong to allow you to glimpse it at others hear it, a complete entity instead of […]

Isolationism, and a resolution

I don’t often talk about the writing here. It only really surfaces when there’s something to tell people about. A milestone, a publication, a nomination. And when you’re working on something long, it can be a long time until you’ve got something to report. Monday’s news made me realize that Arrhythmia was the only piece […]

And suddenly it’s…

…three days til I fly out to San Jose for WFC. I cannot…CANNOT…believe it’s come up so fast. There’s been so much to do over the last few weeks (and so much still to do before I leave), but here it is. And I’m suddenly really looking forward to it. Looking forward to the LDBH […]

A Bit Previous

Open question: is a prologue ever a good idea? Why do writers insist on putting them in? And do readers even read them or do they skip on to the actual story? For me, on the rare occasions that I have time to read books, when I encounter a prologue it’s like a barrier. I’m […]

Afterglow

The aftereffect of Eastercon for me is always exhaustion+inspiration in equal measure. Exhaustion from the stamina-sapping of talk-talk-talking, being engaged and attempting to be engaging all weekend. Inspiration from all the serious, fun, silly conversations that you find yourself a part of. With so many smart people around, ideas are tossed off, tossed up and […]