I’ve never been good at short stories. For starters, I generally used to sit down and just start writing without an endpoint in mind. While it’s fun to have no idea where your story is going (it’s just like being a reader!) you end up with a whole bunch of half finished stories and a few that never seem to end. For a long time, when I tried to intentionally write a short story, I had a hard time reining it in. At a minimum, they seemed to want to become novellas… there just wasn’t a way to tell my … Read more

When I’m writing sci fi (or any fiction, for that matter), I tend to write scenes fairly quickly, without a whole lotta scenery, and then go back and layer that in later. I usually do an initial draft, an indepth second read and edit, and then two more lighter passes to get everything right. I find that, especially for shorter stories, choosing a song that fits the theme or mood of the story often helps me “see” it better. For instance, my short story A New Year, about two men who meet, seemingly by chance at first, ever 11 years … Read more

I’ve just finished my first draft of a short sci fi story set about 500 years in the future. As I’ve gotten back into my writing with a vengeance this last year, I’ve been re-learning my writing process. Every author is different. Some like to write in the middle of the night (or do so out of necessity). Some can only write for 10-20 minutes at a time, while others like to go on writing retreats and dedicate themselves for a week at a time to the art. Some write full-time, while others fit it around an unrelated full-time job. … Read more

One of the things I think about a lot is when I should be writing. I mean, probably first thing in the morning should be best, but I have daily commitments that keep me busy every morning until breakfast. And I have a more-than full time job, too. It’s our own business, so I have some flexibility, but still… So I settled on an hour every day at the end of the day. But sometimes that doesn’t work out – we go out to dinner, or other things intrude. So instead, sometimes I’m writing in bed, or writing in line … Read more