Tag: authors
First Draft Finish Line: What’s Your Speed?
How long should it take you to write the first draft of a novel? There’s no right answer, really, but as both a writer of novels and a former editor of authors who write novels, I’ve identified three categories that most writers fall into… Continue Reading “First Draft Finish Line: What’s Your Speed?”
Three Steps for Novel Reclamation
So, recently, I returned to a novel I abandoned about four years ago. It’s tentatively titled Hell’s Aquarium, and I wrote 35,000 words, essentially the first act, got spooked by the research I needed to do, and moved on to other projects. I’ve since… Continue Reading “Three Steps for Novel Reclamation”
What Are They Saying: Analyzing My Editorial Feedback
When you’ve collected as many rejections as I have, you read A LOT of editor and first-reader feedback. I’m never one to put much stock in isolated feedback from a single source, but when you do this long enough, you start to see some… Continue Reading “What Are They Saying: Analyzing My Editorial Feedback”
Aeryn’s Archives: Dragon #427 (My D&D Swansong)
Looking back over my published credits, there’s one that sticks out, a bittersweet entry in my 15-plus years of professional writing. It’s the final article I published with Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons & Dragons, and it happened in September of 2013, in… Continue Reading “Aeryn’s Archives: Dragon #427 (My D&D Swansong)”
Write What You Know: I Just Work Here
One of my favorite books about the craft is Stephen King’s On Writing. It’s chocked full of interesting anecdotes and useful tidbits about King’s approach to the written word (definitely check it out if you haven’t already). Much of that book has stuck with… Continue Reading “Write What You Know: I Just Work Here”
Taking All the Credits: 15 Years of Writing
I’m currently in the process of putting together an author’s CV, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and it’s been fun to stroll down memory lane and to see what I’ve written and published over the last fifteen years. I presented… Continue Reading “Taking All the Credits: 15 Years of Writing”
Rejection Letter Rundown: The Unspoken Rejection
It’s been a while since I posted a new Rejection Letter Rundown, mostly because I’ve covered just about every kind of rejection you can get. That said, there’s always something new in submission land. 🙂 So this time we’re discussing a rejection letter sans,… Continue Reading “Rejection Letter Rundown: The Unspoken Rejection”
Weeks of Writing: 9/14/20 to 10/11/20
I’m a month behind, so this’ll be four weeks of writing. 🙂 Words to Write By Here’s one from author Richard Bach. “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” —Richard Bach I really like this quote for the bit about not quitting.… Continue Reading “Weeks of Writing: 9/14/20 to 10/11/20”
A Bad Request? 400 Rejections
Today I received my 400th rejection since I started tracking my submissions through Duotrope. Yeah, I received a few pre-Duotrope, in what amounts to my literary Dark Ages, but those rejections are lost to the sands of time and ancient Hotmail accounts, so we’ll… Continue Reading “A Bad Request? 400 Rejections”
Novel Work: Round One Revisions
A little over a month ago, I finished the first draft of a new novel tentatively titled Hell to Play. I let it sit for a while to rest, refocus, and work on other projects, but now I’ve started doing the initial read-through and… Continue Reading “Novel Work: Round One Revisions”
Night Walk & Other Dark Paths
Acts of War: Flashpoint
Acts of War: Aftershock
Acts of War: Stormbreak
Aeryn Rudel's Rejectomancy 