This is priceless! "So You Want to Write a Novel..."

OMG, this says everything I've ever wanted to say in this situation in one wonderful place:



Via SF Signal.

everything is here for a reason

Words of wisdom from James Enge:

In an imaginary world, everything is there for a reason. The reason may be sheer inertia--the ground is made of soil, because it didn't occur to the writer to make it anything else. But a shrewd writer doesn't make those choices via inertia. He makes the ground into an angry vegetable that devours random people at the dark of the twelfth moon. She makes it into a vast expanse of shining incorruptible metal. They make it into something on purpose, to make an impact on the reader. Stuff that in realistic fiction would be corny--instances of the pathetic fallacy--are part of the basic toolkit for shrewd writers of sf/f. The whole world can be a metaphor in imaginative fiction.

Or not. Part of the impact of the metaphor requires the writer to take the material in the imaginary world at face value, as real for the purposes of the story--like a comedian keeping a straight face while telling a joke. I'll sleep on this and try to figure out if it makes any sense.

Podcast: Lou on Writing Excuses

At the recent World Science Fiction Convention, I was honored to be a guest on Writing Excuses, the podcast of writing advice hosted by Brandon Sanderson, Howard Taylor, and Dan Wells. The episode is available on iTunes and elsewhere, and here is the direct link. Their description:

So what exactly does an editor, do, anyway? We’ve already talked about the process of submitting to an editor; today we talk about the millions of vital things that happen after an editor says “I want to buy your book.” Not only that, but we get to hear it all straight from the mouth of Lou Anders, the Hugo-nominated editor from Pyr Books, who this year alone helped create a Hugo-nominated book and two Campbell-nominated authors. In other words: when this man talks about editing, you listen.

Alan Moore's Advice for Young Artists

Via Chris Roberson, Alan Moore giving advice for aspiring creatives: