Archive for January, 2006
Defining History and Other Acts of Futility
by David Niall Wilson
(My apology for being a day early, but there is no one slated for the 31st, and Josh Boone sent his apology - they are in final edits of the script for his movie Parallel, and he was unable to get here with an essay yesterday. He’ll be back soon with some [...]
All You Do to Me Is Talk, Talk…
Just over a decade ago, I wrote a story (“Petey in La-La Land”) that featured two characters whose dialogue I patterned after a couple of quirky fellows I occasionally worked with. One of these gents, a computer service tech, came originally from the former Soviet Union, and while his English wasn’t bad, his attempts at [...]
Lemme In!
A question that I get a lot is “How do I write for video games?” The answer, of course, is “by hitting the keys on the keyboard so that words come out,” but what’s really being asked is “How do I get into the industry?” And that, inconstant reader, is a whole other kettle of [...]
Priceless Perks
by Janet Berliner
We writers justifiably complain that we’re underpaid, undervalued, underappreciated–and we certainly are. National Geographic pays well. Reader’s Digest pays well. Porn pays with regularity. Playboy? Sure. But for the most part, if you ain’t a Biggie, you ain’t nothin’ at all. So, like lyricists turn to writing [...]
Super Girl needs a diet
The only thing I can bring to this blog is my everyday experience of being a writer, which at this point in time is decidedly unglamourous. My book has been out for a month and I’m still waiting for that call from Oprah, although that may change once it’s revealed that THE UNWELCOME CHILD [...]
THEME MUSIC
- Jeffrey Thomas
It’s our pop culture, our technological environment. We’re living in a movie, and our lives need a soundtrack.
When not talking on our cell phones, we walk down the street with music pumped into our ears, so that our every step has a rhythm, ala John Travolta in the opening of ‘Saturday Night Fever.’ [...]
In the Ghetto
By Jeff Mariotte
Since I’m in the last days of a novel’s first draft (and because it’s germane to the conversation here at SU, I’ll say that I’m in the camp of writers who power through to the finish to get the whole story out, and then go back and worry about the niceties), this month’s [...]
What’s So Good About Good Copy?
ByRichard Steinberg
When Bram Stoker was halfway through the first draft of Dracula, he showed it to his friend and employer Henry Irving (the legendary British actor) to get his opinion. Stoker had already sold several short stories, and had published two novels: Under The Sunset (1882) and The Snake’s Pass (1890.) By [...]
Getting Lucky
by Justine Musk
I had a conversation at a party in a cute Spanish bungalow in LA. The guy asked me who my publisher was, I told him, and he gave the most dramatic reaction I’ve gotten so far (in my experience, people initially assume you mean some version of self- or vanity publishing, since everybody [...]
Antecedents and Grammar: Is It Really a Problem?
By Weston Ochse
We all started somewhere. None of us appeared as fully-formed writers able to detect passive voice after that first gurgling breath.
This was especially true for me. My journey to grammatical confidence was a long one. Even after high school, it took a while to figure out what the teacher [...]
