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I quickly figured something out about writing advice.

Don't take seriously the advice of a writer you don't ALWAYS enjoy. I loved Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I got copies of some of his...

Often knowing what's happening and the characters NOT knowing is the best kind of suspense. Dune did this very well for example. Another example, you know "so-and-so" is looking to betray his friend...

My advice is "don't fall into the trap of avoiding tropes". Then again you already know my opinion on the matter ;)

A trope is a trope, and a trope isn't always a cliche. Even if it is I would...

I'd always err on the side of fewer characters in any case. Easier to keep track of a smaller cast.

I tend to drop most of my characters after their individual projects are done with (finished, grind to a halt, forgotten about, etc.) so I don't technically have a longest "serving" character. I used...

I recently read a number of short stories in one day and the first part of Brian's Abuse of Power was in amongst them.

In comparison to his story, some were written terribly. So while I generally...

I'm going to have to disagree with this fundemental explanation of his argument.

I get what he's trying to say, but the conflation of literarism/stylism as always elitist is a little insulting to...

You know when you watch a diver on the olympics or something like that? The shape they form just before impact is the best way to avoid any of the troubles of impacting the water. You want the...

Good call on the different cultures interpretations thing!

We often tend to forget something. You as a writer are unique, with a thought process that is uniquely yours. You're blog about writing isn't necessarily going to be the same as someone elses. I'm...

Caveat - I'm not now or ever going to rush into submitting before a piece is ready, especially not as a self-publisher considering the amount of dross you have to fight through without publisher...

Seriously though. The way I see it, even when I do finish, I could publish it as either. Chapter as a chapter, or a chapter as a short story.

Perhaps the market needs to decide!

I've just discovered an odd situation. I've been happily writing away at my latest science fiction offering for a few days now ("1000" words every day since starting), and it's only just dawned on...

I'm going to be honest with you.

Right now, and even when published ("obligations" shouldn't mean you can't write what you want), the only thing that matters is personal desire. If one particular...

See? This is why I knew it was good idea to buy while I had my NaNo Winner's discount. Thanks for the heads up on all of this, would have faffed with Word and Calibre and messed it right up too.

If you ensure that each book stands-alone there's no real reason for a publisher not to pick it up. I can definitely see that general outline working in your favour you know, just so long as you...

I've had Google+'ness since I transferred my blog over to WordPress and created a contact email. I've only started to figure it out now, and I do believe I've seen some benefits ;)
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There are some misguided people out there who, upon seeing just the word prologue, will skip it. Doesn't matter if it's written well or not, on to chapter one they go. I always hope that it doesn't...

Depends entire on whether you can sustain interest for as long as it takes to get through you 60 page monster prologue. There's a good way to do it, and a bad way (I hope we all know the difference...

Fact is people love free stuff. Until I see people go to county shows, conventions, university open days and such and not horde free pens, those little googlie-eyed fuzzy things, badges, stickers and...

I have a few, but only because they're so damn common these days I can't turn my back on writers for a second.

I also managed to debunk them all on my blog. Practical upshot, it's just like...

Nothing wrong with lampshading tropes for laughs :)

Just keep card-carrying villians out of my "serious" fiction haha

I think the easiest thing to do might be play up the fantastic elements of the setting.

Yeah, parallels will happen, but if someone's going to come to those conclusions they could pick any number...

I've always looked up words I don't understand. That's my obsession, you see. If I can't understand something I get a little annoyed.

Plus, you can never know too many words :) A good vocabulary...

I got about four pages of titles on my Kindle to finish reading, and on top of that a shelf full of books I've either not started or started and forgotten about.

2013 is all about finishing...