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writing

Angel’s Bits: Rejection Sucks, Sometimes

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Unless you have self-published exclusively, rejection is a universal experience for authors. It’s not fun. It can hurt when you thought you’d found the perfect home for a story that’s been polished to within an inch of its literary life. I’m sympathetic up to a point. Yes, I cried when I received my first rejection many years ago and I’ll allow you that. One good cry. Then it’s time to suck it up, buttercup, and make that which did not kill you help you become a better author. I have a box full of rejection letters from the bad old … Read more

Finding Beta Readers

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Beta cat

Today’s topic comes form QSFer Jon Keys – how do we find good beta readers for our work? It’s a question many newer authors have – we’re told again and again that it’s not enough for us to proof our own work, that we need an outside eye to help us catch things we might miss – typos, errors, and general confusion in places that seem clear to us as the authors. So my questions today: How do you find your beta readers? Are you one, and if so, how do you approach this delicate work? What makes a good … Read more

Discussion: Where Do You Get Ideas?

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writing and marketing

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Elizabeth Barrette: Where do you find ideas for stories? Specifically, a lot of material about queerfolk is crap, so it’s necessary to sort through and find reliable, relevant stuff if you want to do research. How do current events influence your writing? Do you work in things like legal changes or scientific advances that affect queerfolk, or ignore them? It’s a good question. For me, many ideas originate in music, or in calls for submission – anthology calls have been a great source of new story ideas for me. Sometimes a newspaper article will trigger … Read more

Guest Post: Avoiding Bisexual Stereotypes, by Vance Bastian

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Bisexuality

We’re thrilled to have Vance Bastian contributing a post for our discussion today: Bisexual characters bring a very dynamic element to a story. Writers who challenge themselves to go beyond the stereotype of wanton promiscuity, abuse, or mental disorders find their stories wrapping around this individual who is a living catalyst. At their hearts, a bisexual character can be attracted to either gender. That does not mean the character wants to have sex with anything that moves. In fact, how open-hearted and rich is a bisexual character who wants a family, but sees the beauty in everyone? How complex is … Read more

The Sci of Scifi: Research Sources

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We all know how important research is and there are many sources available for hunting down those important facts. Sometimes I find I need to know more detailed information. The sort of details that comes from personal experience. Finding expert testimony can be challenging. I’ve found two excellent sources that are very helpful. The first is Quora. This is a very cool forum. It’s free to join and they’ll send you a newsletter type digest every day if you’d like. I don’t think you have to join to read, but you would have to join to ask a question or comment. The … Read more

Article: How To Get Started (And Get Ahead) In Science Fiction Self-Publishing

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My podcast co-host S.A.Collins just shared this, and it’s a good read for authors. Pay close attention to the comments after the article, some good discussion going on. How To Get Started (And Get Ahead) In Science Fiction Self-Publishing To self-publish or not to self-publish… That is the question more and more aspiring authors are asking themselves these days. And with good reason—self-publishing has come a long way in the decade since it really hit the market and many of the blatant scams of the past have been outed by an increasingly well-informed author community. With the popularity of ebooks … Read more

The Sci of Scifi: Integrating LGBT Characters

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I wish there wasn’t a gay fiction category. There are many reasons people read and write fiction of any genre with gay characters. My favorite type of story is not the one where the focus is on a character being gay. I love the story where the main character(s) just happen to be gay. Being gay shouldn’t be considered a character flaw so it stands to reason it shouldn’t be what defines a character. I think it’s great when a book/TV show/movie has characters that also happen to be gay. Their sexual orientation doesn’t need to be the story line. The … Read more

Discussion: Writing Clichés

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Cliché

We’ve all seen it or done it. When you’re writing, it’s easy to fall back on clichés because they are a sort of universal short-hand. Use one and your reader instantly knows what you are trying to convey. But clichés can also have the effect of making the writing seem stunted and, well, cliché. One of my editors called me on the use of: “He let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.” She urged me to find a more original way to express that sense of anticipation and nervousness, which I did, and the story was stronger … Read more

The Sci of Scifi: A Place for Your Stuff

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Hello! I’m Elizabeth Noble and I’ll be bringing you articles to hopefully give inspiration to your writing or at least be something interesting to read. Writing in any genre requires research. Whether you’re writing about actual historical events or creating a whole new world for your book it doesn’t matter. It’s likely research is a large part of creating a novel. As readers of scifi are well aware many of the books/movies/etc created half a century ago resulted in the development of some technology we have today. As writers of scifi I feel strongly that we as a group should be … Read more

Discussion: Making it All Up

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Imagination

Today’s topic comes from QSFer Blaine D. Arden: “What are your favourite things to make up while writing SciFi/Fantasy/Paranormal? (not counting magic, but not quite excluding it, either)” One of the best parts of being a writer is being able to make up things. New worlds. New ideas. New turns of phrase. It gets the creative juices flowing, churns the imagination. Only later do you get into the soul-grinding process of churning out the actual written word. So let’s hear it – what do you like to make up? Come join the discussion!