I’ve written another post at Pub(lishing) Crawl about writing diverse characters in fiction, and touch a little bit on cultural appropriation. Stop by and comment!
On Writing Diversity
Posted in: Writing
Archive | Writing
The craft of writing and some tips here and there.
Scripturient
Scripturient: possessing a violent desire to write. More illustrations of unusual and rarely spoken words here!
Posted in: Writing
What I Did The Summer I Graduated
When you are a woman or a girl or female no one says to you, "Look, artists who are great take without asking, and take and take and do not apologize" because when you are a woman or a girl or female, the only thing you are supposed to take is a lot of other people's shit. No one says to you, "Be sure you are strong enough to take and not apologize and keep going when the taking leaves you nothing to go back to." Be sure you are strong enough to steal and live alone with what you've made yours.Sarah McCarry
Sarah McCarry (a.k.a. The Rejectionist) is an amazing writer, and we are so incredibly honoured here at SMP to be publishing her novel.
Posted in: Writing
How to Increase Your Wordcount
This is a fantastic article by Rachel Aaron, author of The Legend of Eli Moonpress, on how to identify your best writing practices, optimise productivity, and drastically increase wordcount. 10K words a day is rather drastic and probably unfeasible for most writers, but regardless, any increase in output and quality will probably be appreciated by everyone. I also think that with a little bit of adjustment, these practices can apply to any creative freelancer–from artists and illustrator to webdesigners.
Posted in: Writing
Make Good Art
Oh, but Magical Uncle, not all of us are so privileged to be able to work only on what moves us. Still, a wonderful speech about the creative life, especially the part of turning difficulty into “good art”.
Posted in: Writing
Words From the Future
There was a truth on the tip of her tongue, and she was afraid to speak lest it fall out into the open. She looked at him and would not let herself give in to the insistent pressure of those words against her lips. He was not ready. She was not ready. It hurt to keep her feelings inside, expanding the seams of her heart to a nigh-unbearable pain, but the pain of losing Raphael could only be infinitely worse.S. Jae-Jones, Untitled WIP
So she would keep her truth secret and she would keep it safe until the world returned to its senses, and she would be free to feel without fear of loss.
"Evie," he said softly.
I don’t know why I wrote this little snippet when I’ve shelved this project to focus on something else, but something about the relationship between these two characters keep coming back to me. Okay, so I let them off my mind; back to the other project!
Posted in: Writing
Scholar of the Corporeal
She was dumbfounded by what was being asked of her. It had been years since she knelt on the hard wooden pews of the Giraffe’s church, years since she had been asked to absorb, to translate, to understand the abstract. She had always been concerned with the tangible, the practical, the mundane; she had no use for God or metaphysics. She was a scholar of the corporeal, not of philosophy or, heaven forbid, POETRY.The Education of Sumire Min
I am WOEFULLY behind on my NaNoWriMo word count. Oh well.
Posted in: Writing
The Education of Sumire Min
So, I know it’s already 11 days into November, but is anyone else doing NaNoWriMo? I am cheating, of course, as I’m actually NaNo-ing a project I was already about 35K into by the time November rolled around. (I’m doubly cheating because this is actually the backstory to a villain character in another novel I [...]
Posted in: Writing
I Have The Awesomest Friends
- JJ: Soooooooooo, if one were to come up with a fake right-wing, ultranationalistic, fascist slogan for a 19th century imperial nation, what would it be?
- MARIE: EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
Instead of a lion rampant on the imperial crest, one could have a Dalek Victorious!
Posted in: Writing
I Loved You
I loved you, and perhaps I love you still.Alexander Pushkin
The flame, perhaps, is not extinguished;
yet burns so quietly within my soul.
No longer should you feel distressed by it.
Silently and hopelessly I love you,
At times too jealous and at times too shy,
God grant you find another who will love you,
As tenderly and truthfully as I.
There are a few translations of this poem by Alexander Pushkin, although I love this one best. I imagine one of my characters would say this to her beloved, but not aloud.
Posted in: Writing
