point of view

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Point of View: Getting Creative When I’m Squished in the Middle

by
Scott GRL prep

Hey all, It’s been an interesting week. I’m in a cabin (well, technically in the B&B looking out at the cabins) at our first bi-annual Coatsworth family reunion. It’s all but over now – officially it will end with breakfast this morning. It’s been a great weekend. But… I’m on serious deadline to finish the second draft of Lander and get it off for beta. So I’m getting creative, working on my iPad in stolen moments between reunion events, and totally burning the candle at both ends. I’m so fricking close… So I’m curious. When you find yourself on deadline … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Death to TV Shows

by
Eli Stone

Hey all, Sadly, it’s true. I am death to any show that I really like. Sense8 was just cancelled, and yes, it is totally my fault. I am not your typical American TV consumer. I go for shows that are quirky, odd, eccentric and decidedly offbeat. And so I guess it should be no great surprise when those shows go off the air after a season or two. Every now and then, I get lucky, and one lasts for three or maybe four seasons. If you’re reading this post, odds are that you’re odd like me. So in the spirit … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Icky Part

by
J. Scott Coatsworth

Hey all, I’m at that part of the story on “Lander” that I always hit, about this far in. I’m probably three quarters finished, and all I can see is suck and ick. The writing sucks. The story is pedestrian. The threads of it are all over the place, and there’s NO WAY I am ever going to find a way to bring them altogether. It sucks. I suck. I am a horrible writer. Everyone’s going to find out. I will fail. Instead, I just sit back and laugh. You see, every one of us writers has this little internal critic. … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Writing the Blog Tour

by
Scott Millennium Falcon

Hey all, One of the things that comes with being an author is promoting your work. A new release comes out, and you have tell the world about it, so hopefully a few folks will want to give it a try. Nevermind that you’ve just read the bloody thing seventeen times in rough drafts and edits, and would sooner roll around in a bathtub full of fire ants than have to think about it or write about it again. You’re probably gonna have to do some kind of blog/review tour, and you’re gonna need to write some promotional blog posts. So… what … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Remembering to Shower

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man shower - pixabay

If you’re a writer and you’re anything like me, well, first of all, I’m sorry. You probably have a day job or three (commonly known as the Evil Day Job, or EDJ) and you madly scramble for bits of time to write, edit, feed your Facebook and Twitter accounts, plot out your next novel, network and self promote. But you may be missing a few key things in your life. Things your significant other might have noticed too – the reason they wrinkle their nose every time you walk into the room. So I thought I’d step in to help. Print … Read more

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Point of View: My Obsession With Wingfic

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flight - pixabay

When I was a kid I used to buy and sell gravity I knew how to fly, and I would teach you for a fee Broke every window in my hotel heart When I was only five years old The twelve years scared But I’d hear the same voice echo in my mind It’d say, “Son, you’ve got an angel.” That’d chase the devil out the mind. –Preacher, by One Republic I want to fly. I’ve always wanted to fly. I have dreams about it. Sometimes it’s kind of an antigravity thing, where I just float up into the air … Read more

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Point of View: Edits, Edits, Edits

by
Scott

It’s an inevitable part of writing. When you send off your finished manuscript to the publisher, as any writer will tell you, there’s a palpable sense of relief. Your long writing slog is finally over, and you can turn your attention to something else. If only that were true. You know how they say “for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction”? Well, for every manuscript, there’s an equal (and sometimes opposite) edit. or three. Edits are the boomerang of the writing world. I really can’t complain. Well, obviously I can. LOL… but edits are a part of life … Read more

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Point of View: In the Weeds

by
writer brain

It’s official. I’ve gone off the beaten path. I had such great intentions – my book was all plotted out, and I knew exactly how it was going to go, chapter by chapter. Then my writer brain got bored with it all. Writer brains are fickle things. They will insist that there’s nothing there when you sit down to write at a perfectly reasonable time in mid-afternoon. Then they will wake you at midnight because a great idea has been had. A writer’s brain will pour forth a torrent of words, making you feel really good, for once, about being … Read more

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Point of View: How I Build Worlds

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world building - pixabay

Morning all! As I am knee-deep in fleshing out the world of Titania for “Lander”, the sequel to “Skythane”, I thought it would be fun to share how I create worlds, especially on the sci fi/fantasy side. I usually start with an overarching feature that makes the world interesting to me, and I hope to my readers as well. In Skythane, it’s the concept of a broken world – a half-sphere hanging against the inky blackness of space. In my forthcoming “The Stark Divide”, it’s a man-made cylindrical world that arches up all around the reader, almost claustrophobic in its embrace, … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Driftwood, or the Art of Writing a Sequel

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driftwood - pixabay

I just embarked on a new first for me – writing a sequel. My novel Skythane came out in February, and the next one, Lander, is due out in February 2018. So I’m working through the new one now. And man, it’s hard! LOL… The Netflix effect has been in evidence now for a couple years in series fiction – the idea that the author should have the whole series ready to go when the first book launches, so they can release them quickly, one after another, to allow people to binge read the series and not have to wait too long for the next … Read more