If you’re like me, you spent most of Monday watching Hurricane Sandy pummel the east coast. Every image of flooded streets or burning power lines emblazoned itself into your retinas. The problem was, not all those pictures were real. The one above, for example, combined a photo of New York’s harbor with a storm […]
Author Archive > Wendy Wagner
Fire it up! A writing exercise
Last week, Christie talked about using timed writing exercises to restart your creative fires. Here’s a similar exercise that you can use to jolt yourself out of a rut. It’s based on Kerouac’s Spontaneous Prose method. You may have tried something similar in a writing class–I know I have. Find an object to study. Maybe […]
September’s almost over!
Another month is coming to an end–and we Inkpunks are coming to the end of another great year of blogging. That kind of stuff makes me want to check my to-do list and make sure I’ve made enough check marks. It also makes me want to check in with our readers. What have you seen […]
For a short story writer, what is success?
Here’s another guest post from editor/poet/story spinner Kaolin Fire. His advice just might light a fire under you to get writing short stories! What is success, for a short story writer? Your first sale? Pro publication? Joining the SFWA, HWA, or other such organization? It’s easy to attach a lot to those moments, looking forward; […]
Popcorn time
You know what’s the only thing better than being a writer? Watching writers on tv. In honor of Labor Day, a holiday which demands either hard-core outdoor activity (camping!) or an escape to an air-conditioned home theater, here are my five favorite movies about writers. 5. Sophie’s Choice Only the most depressing movie ever […]
Exploratory Writing–a guest post by Kaolin Fire
Here’s a guest post from the fantastic writer/poet/editor/code dude/creator Kaolin Fire. If you’ve ever wondered what it means to write by the seat of your pants, this is the way he does it: Hello. My name is Kaolin, and I’m a pantser. I think that means the same thing for everyone, pretty much, but I was […]
Summertime, summertime
So … summertime. I love it. As a kid, I spent summers reading. As in nonstop, around the clock reading–one wonderful summer I counted reading 125 books in two weeks. These days, I still feel like I should spend most of my summer catching up on my reading list. But I don’t dig into the […]
Wendy’s Novel Outlining Omnibus
Little by little, I am teaching myself how to outline. By nature, I’m an “inchwormer” when I write (thanks to John Klima and Bradley Beaulieu for that great term!), writing a bit at a time, thinking about the developments implied by what I’ve just written and then forging ahead, clinging only to a loose scaffolding […]
Guest Post from Tina Connolly: In Which We Consider Flash
Tina Connolly lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and toddler, in a house that came with a dragon in the basement and blackberry vines in the attic. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Fantasy, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and Rich Horton’s anthology Unplugged: Web’s Best SF. Her debut fantasy novel IRONSKIN is forthcoming from […]
YES, BUT– NO, AND
[6/15, 11:15 am: This post has been edited–when I originally posted, late last night, I had accidentally switched ALL THE PREPOSITIONS, giving “Yes, and,” and “No, but.” Which can still generate some good ideas, but I think you’ll find these slightly more useful. Thanks again to Mary Kowal for catching my blunder!] This spring I […]
