Category: Dubious Writing Advice
Even Good Stories Get Rejected
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. You finish a story, and you know it’s just the best damn thing you’ve ever written. Proud of your shiny new word baby, you send it out to a publisher you’re pretty sure will dig it. You… Continue Reading “Even Good Stories Get Rejected”
Hook, Line & Sinker: Fine-Tuning the First Sentence
Last year, I wrote a blog post inspired by one of my favorite essays by Stephen King, “Great Hookers I Have Known,” from his collection Secret Windows. The title of the essay is, of course, not what it sounds like. It’s about crafting a… Continue Reading “Hook, Line & Sinker: Fine-Tuning the First Sentence”
AFSG (Always Follow the Submission Guidelines)
Recently, I committed the nigh-unforgivable writerly sin of failing to follow the submission guidelines. I will pause a moment to soak in your righteous and fully justified finger-wagging. Ouch. Okay, my particular sin was submitting a story that did not meet the word count… Continue Reading “AFSG (Always Follow the Submission Guidelines)”
When Should You Reply to a Rejection Letter?
Should you reply to rejection letters? A good question, and 99.9 % of the time my personal opinion is a resounding NO. The most compelling reason is that many publishers will straight-up tell you not to reply to a rejection in their submission guidelines, and… Continue Reading “When Should You Reply to a Rejection Letter?”
Rejections and the Revision Decision
How many rejections do I let a story accumulate before I revise it? That’s a question I get asked a lot these days (maybe because I plaster my rejections all over the internet). It’s a good question, and my answer usually is something like,… Continue Reading “Rejections and the Revision Decision”
Fightin’ Fiction II: 3 More Melee Myths
Since the first article I did in this Fightin’ Fiction series was so popular, I thought I’d double down and do another one in the same vein. So, here you go, three MORE melee myths. Like the last article, this one is aimed at authors who… Continue Reading “Fightin’ Fiction II: 3 More Melee Myths”
Fightin’ Fiction: 5 Melee Myths
One of my many hobbies is HEMA, or historical European martial arts, wherein folks study various fighting manuals from the medieval and renaissance periods and attempt to recreate these martial disciplines as accurately as possible. Once you swing a sword the way it’s meant… Continue Reading “Fightin’ Fiction: 5 Melee Myths”
Proofing Hit List Part Two: Over-Filtration
Since I’ve been in the middle of a big fat novel revision, I thought it might be time to talk about more items on my proofing hit list. These are the little (and biggish) things I try to fix and/or eliminate from my drafts before… Continue Reading “Proofing Hit List Part Two: Over-Filtration”
Good Hookers are Hard to Find
There’s some click bait for you, huh? Did I get you? Well, unfortunately, like most click bait, this post is not what you think it is. Let me explain. A while back, a friend gave me a great book by Stephen King called Secret Windows,… Continue Reading “Good Hookers are Hard to Find”
Writing for Dollars: 4 Tiers of Freelance Payment
Getting published usually means getting paid for your work. Getting paid is a good thing, even if you’re “not doing it for the money.” At the very least, it’s some validation your writing is actually worth something. To further illustrate my feelings on the… Continue Reading “Writing for Dollars: 4 Tiers of Freelance Payment”
Effectively Wild – A Baseball Horror Story
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 