Here’s another seven-sentence short story! I ran the workshop again at Ganbatte, an anime convention in Saskatoon. It went well, and here’s the one I created, again with the instructions, created by noted SF short-story writer James van Pelt. The illustration above is AI-generated by Bing. Introduce what the main character wants and the first …
Tag: writing
The Cat of Enlightenment: A Seven-Sentence Short Story
Another When Words Collide, another Seven-Sentence Short Story workshop, as I once again led a group of writers through this plotting exercise devised by noted science fiction short-story writer James Van Pelt. As always, I created a story myself. I usually call this a plotting exercise, but since I was also on a panel called …
The Space-Time Continuum: Neologisms
Here’s my latest Space-Time Continuum column from the January 2023 issue of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild’s magazine, Freelance. “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” —Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass Humpty Dumpty, noted wall-sitter and …
A new seven-sentence short story: Swinging to the Guru
I just completed this year’s Seven-Sentence Short Story workshop for the When Words Collide writers’ convention, at which I’m one of the Guests of Honor this year. This exercise, created by short-story writer extraordinaire James Van Pelt, has been a great success every time I’ve conducted it. Below is my story, written extemporaneously during the …
A new seven-sentence short story: The Quantum Beast
Earlier today, as part of this year’s online version of When Words Collide, the great annual writing conference in Calgary, I led about forty writers through the Seven-Sentence Short Story exercise, created by science fiction and fantasy author (and former English teacher) James Van Pelt, who was on hand and took part himself! I’ve used this …
The Space-Time Continuum: Why do we write?
This is my latest “Space-Time Continuum” column for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild‘s news magazine Freelance. Have you ever asked yourself why you write? Or asked your writer friends why they write? I have. In fact, I literallyasked myself that question in one episode of my ongoing podcast, The Worldshapers (www.theworldshapers.com), featuring conversations with science fiction and fantasy …
I talk about worldbuilding!
On Tuesday of this week I gave a presentation at the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild office, part of its Write After Lunch series of authors’ talks, entitled “Worldshaping.” The topic was what is usually called “worldbuilding,” but since my upcoming eighth novel for DAW Books (for which I just received the page proofs) is called Worldshaper, …
The Space-Time Continuum: Steam-Engine Time
Here’s my latest column from Freelance, the magazine of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. All forms of art, from the visual to the theatrical, from motion pictures to literature, tend to go through movements. One reason for this is simply copycatting, something that is most clearly seen in the motion picture industry: somebody makes a movie …
The Space-Time Continuum: What do writers owe their readers?
Here’s my latest column from Freelance, the magazine of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in George R.R. Martin’s bestselling fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, still doesn’t have a release date, six years after the release of A Dance with Dragons. (And there’s a final book, A …
First description of Worldshaper, my next novel for DAW Books
The release of Worldshaper, Book 1 in the Worldshapers series, is still 10 months away (it’s set for September 2018), but that’s not very long in publishing terms. My editor at DAW Books, Sheila Gilbert, and I are already talking about cover art. And I’ve also been asked to write “sell copy” describing the book. …
The Space-Time Continuum: What’s the Big Idea?
Here’s my latest “Space-Time Continuum” column from the Saskatchewan Writers Guild‘s magazine Freelance. “Where do you get your ideas?” is a question every author has heard multiple times. I usually say something about how story ideas are all around us, and give some examples. But recently I’ve realized there are two different kinds of ideas …
The Space-Time Continuum: Aliens in Science Fiction
Having just posted my column from the February/March 2017 issue of Freelance, the magazine of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild (see previous post), it behooves me to be more timely and post the most recent column, from the April/May issue. And here it is! I remember being confused, as a kid, the first time I encountered the …
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