Nugget #147-- Big Rock Candy Writer

Any time can be a good time to reinvent yourself

as a writer, but do so only when it's time to grow

into that new you. Change for the sake of change

is like using turpentine instead of sugar in a
recipe for rock candy. Yuck.

Nugget #146 -- Sean Changes His Tune About Opening Sentences

Nugget #145 -- New Pulp, Revisited

I think New Pulp is in a pretty enviable spot right now. 

Now that it’s outgrown its source material and can 

play with style instead of just characters or settings, 

New Pulp is literally being made and remade every day.

Photo by Andrew Amistad on Unsplash

Nugget #144 -- Skirting Magical Realism

I think somewhere deep inside me is a magical realism 

writer who likes to paint the edges of my work 

with extraordinary stuff from time to time.

Nugget #143 -- Calling or Career?

 

Writing and editing is one of those comes and goes industries, 

and in an economy as volatile as the U.S. one has been during 

the years I’ve been a writer and editor, it’s bounced up and 

down several time. But what I learned from all that is that 

writing is something I make time to do whether or not it’s 

paying the bills. It’s more a calling than a career choice.

 

Nugget #142 -- How to Read a Short Story Collection

Step one -- open to the table of contents.
Step two -- read the list of titles.
Step three -- pick one that sounds interesting.
Step four -- if you're not enjoying the stories you've read, 

close the book and pick up a different collection.

By Atomicdragon136 - Own work, CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67470250

 

Nugget #141 -- Ignorance Ain't Always Bliss

 

The standards and truths of the time must influence your 

stories if you choose to set them there. You ignore them 

at your peril as a writer, and you risk missing out on the

really important stories that might be waiting to come out. 

Nugget #140 -- Sliding Back and Forth

For me, it gets down to character. The characters who 

occupy my stories are always on a sliding scale
—starting somewhere between pure good and

pure bad, and constantly sliding back and

forth toward one or the other.

Nugget #139 -- Responsibility to History

 We have a responsibility to research and to history to 

portray our settings (place, time, etc.) as accurately as 

is needed for our stories. That’s the often hard work 

(but still fun for those who enjoy it) of writing—

research. We do that because we value accuracy. 

We want our fiction to be as real as we need 

it to be from story to story.

Milford Plantation, Entrance Gateway, Wedgefield-Rimini Road,
Pinewood, Sumter County, SC HABS SC,43-PINWO.V,1B-1

Nugget #138 -- Art, By Its Very Nature

Juan Gris: Deutsch: Stilleben mit Bordeuauxflasche 1919

The trouble with our cast in iron disapproval of the new is that 

it doesn't take into account the constantly changing nature of art. 

Art, by its very nature, is re-interpreted by each successive 

generation, and it's our job as old-timers to adjust, not to 

make sure new readers succumb to our interpretations.

Nugget #137 -- Thank You, Pocahontas!

I want to paint with all the colors of the wind (thank you, Pocahontas!). I want to master all of the Lantern rings, from green to black. I want to write like the writers who influenced me, not because I want to be a clone of them, but because they created the same kinds of stories I want to be able to tell... a little bit of whatever the hell they wanted to tell at the time. They didn't get locked into markets, and even if that's the way the industry works today, I won't do it. I can't do it.

Nugget #136 -- For the Love of God, Why?

If you don't love words enough to read them,

then why in God's name would you want to

do the more difficult task of writing them?

By Onderwijsgek - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19494586

Nugget #135 -- For Crying Out Loud, Do It Already!

That "great idea" you're so concerned someone 

is going to steal... someone has most likely already 

thought of it. Someone has most likely already written 

it and and some publisher has most likely already 

published it. The only thing about it that's really 

"yours" is the way you choose to tell it, so write it, 

draw it, audio it, or turn it into a movie, 

but stop just talking about it.

Nugget #134 -- Foundations Need Walls

 Story narrative is based in what characters see and 
 hear. There’s almost no way around that. Those are 
 the foundations on which you build the frame. And 
 that’s okay. But remember, nobody lives on just the 
 concrete slab. You actually have to put up walls.

By Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas or alternatively © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas,
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39211147

Nugget #133 -- The Mad Skillz of Full-Grown Adults

The skill sets you’ll need to plot, organize, and craft 

a novel will not be the same ones you learned writing 

short stories because contrary to what several folks 

may tell you, short stories are NOT INFANTS THAT 

GROW UP TO BECOME NOVELS. Short stories 

are full-grown adults in their own right.

Nugget #132 -- The Long and Short of Writing a Novel

 

 If you want to write a novel, start by writing

a novel. Hell, write two or three of 'em, then
when you get that strong, ready-to-show novel,
shop it around. But don’t write a short story 

for practice if you really want to write a novel.

Nugget #131 -- Discomfort and Dread

The key to writing horror, as least as I see it 

(and you’ll find as many different takes on 

this as you can find authors, I’m sure), is to 

camp out in the concepts of discomfort and 

dread. You’re not going to surprise scare a 

reader. You’re going to slowly overwhelm 

them with several smaller “uneases” that 

become a full-blown “creepy” and finally 

if you’ve done your job right, all-out dread.

 

Nugget #130 -- Scary Get's Philosophical

Writing scary is hard. It's really hard because 

it takes an understanding of the human mind, 

memories, senses, and universal generalities 

about the human condition.

Nugget #129 -- Scary Gets Stuck

Writing scary is hard. Books are stuck in one place, but the 

reader isn’t. Skip ahead a few pages and the suspense can 

be ruined. Put the book down, and the tension is released.

Nugget #128 -- Editing As An Act of Creation

If, as the axiom goes, writing is rewriting, 
then editing is as much part of the creation 
of stories as telling the tale itself.