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Hi all, I've just filled in a writing survey on writing advice at: http://www.aboygoesonajourney.com/ index.php?option=com_performs&formid=5 One of the questions it asks is: of the following, select which writing advice you have heard of 1 Write what you know 2 Stay away from all clichés unless you’re writing parody 3 You must plan your story before writing 4 You must plot your story chapter by chapter before writing 5 You must have written at least *a certain amount* of words 6 You must read the genre you write in 7 If you read the genre you write in, you will unknowingly plagiarise. Stay away from it. 8 You must write every day, even if it’s bad 9 You should keep a journal 10 Write without caring 11 Write for the love of it, not for readers, not for publishers 12 You should write only for the market 13 Anyone can be a writer 14 Not everyone can be a writer. It’s a special gift. 15 Take advantage of every opportunity and query everyone (if your book is good enough, even a publ...

Hi all, While critiquing a story I noticed the author use both nanite and nanobot which to me are the same thing: a nano sized machine. I personally prefer nanobot. It got me thinking about other science-fiction terminology for the same thing, so which do you prefer: Nanite Nanobot Nano-machine And which do you prefer from the following list for an intelligent mechanical human like device: Robot Android Artificial Human Artificial Person Which do you prefer for the name of a futuristic weapon? Laser Phaser Blaster Disrupter Ray Gun What is your prefered term for the coming technological revolution? Technological Singularity Singularity Technological Spike The Spike What would you prefer a spacecraft's engine be called? Hyperdrive Stardrive Warpdrive Infinite Improbability Drive Anti-matter Drive What would you prefer an interplanetary craft be called? Spacecraft Spaceship Starship Interstellar Transport Freighter Or you may have some other preferred term for some of the above. Grah...

Hi all, I was disappointed that I missed out on going to the emerging writer's festival in Melbourne two weekends ago. Silly me got behind in his newspaper reading so I didn't read about it until this week. Unlike normal writer's festivals, this one was all about the writing process, not about the finished product of books or their authors. I have still written every day this year, yaaa me. Pity it's not a 1000 words each day as I would have finished the first draft, at least, of the novel I am writing. I critiqued the first chapter of a novel on critters.com. I will probably become, what they call, a dedicated reader and critique the whole thing. What really piqued my interest is that it was written in first person, which I tend to write in, so I will probably get some ideas on what works and perhaps what doesn't in first person. Oh, and the first chapter also had me wanting to find out what happened to the nicely developing characters. Watched a pretty ordinary sc...

I mentioned “The Writer’s Journey” by Christopher Vogel in my last post so I thought I might mention a few books I have found useful for my writing. The Writer’s Journey is the script writer’s version of Vogel’s The Heroes’ Journey. It details the structure many film scripts and novels follow. Most open in the ordinary world and then something happens to call the hero (main character) to adventure. The hero is usually reluctant and refuses the call, he’s quite happy with his unadventurous life, but he meets a mentor who helps persuade him to cross the threshold and accept the call to adventure. The hero has to complete a series of tests and is joined by allies and attacked by enemies. He then has to complete/confront the ordeal at the centre of the story. He receives a reward for overcoming the ordeal and returns to his ordinary world. The first Star Wars movie is the classic example of the Heroes’ Journey. Of course not all stories have all the elements of the Heroes’ Journey,...

Hi all, My characters took control of my writing again: this time a character added a new plot idea. I had been getting near the stage where the narration jumps in time to just before, what Christopher Vogler in his book "The Writer's Journey" calls, the "Ordeal". But my main character has devised another "test" for himself before he reaches his "innermost cave". I have been writing a bit more this week, but no critiquing and little reading. One thing I did read, in The AGE, is that publishing house Macmillian may be paying its authors 20% royalties on digital rights as compared to 10% for print editions. So electronic publishing might be better than expected for authors. I watched a repeat of one of the ABC Tuesday Bookclub and it was great to see them whole heartedly disagree about the merits of the books they were reviewing. One was A Farewell to Arms, I can't r...

Hi all, The Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, Third Annual Volume, Edited by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt was a bit of a disappointment. I couldn’t help thinking at the end: so this is the best that Australia had to offer in 2006. I must admit I have not been reading a lot of Australian publications lately after being disappointed with the dominance of fantasy that had no meaning for me in the first four editions of Andromeda Inflight Spaceways Magazine, the main outlet for Australian writers of speculative fiction. I have also failed to catch up with the last few editions of Orb and Aurealis. My short-story speculative fiction reading of late has been anthologies and a pile of Asimov and Analog magazines that I picked up at a garage sale. Perhaps there weren’t any mind-blowing, ideas-laden, totally engrossing, contemporary-messaged stories published by Australians in 2006. Or perhaps the editors of the anthology have far different tastes to mine, in particula...

Hi all, I had the perfect excuse over the last couple of weeks to stop writing every day, but I didn't. I've started a new job two weeks ago that has very early starts, so I have had to reschedule my exercise routine and my writing. I haven't critiqued a story for a couple of weeks and my reading has suffered. But I seem to be getting into a new routine. I am going to have to put more emphasis on my writing or I will have no hope of achieving what I had hoped for this year. I had planned to finish the first draft of the novel I am writing, re-draft another novel, and then redraft the novel I am currently writing. At the moment I will be lucky to finish the first draft of the novel I am working on. I need to spend less time on facebook, livejournal and myspace. Graham.

Hi all, I have been reading The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. It’s a non-fiction book which asks the question: what would happen to planet Earth if humanity suddenly disappeared? I am about halfway through and each chapter of the book begins by explaining how humans have affected some part of the natural environment and then how the environment might change/recover if humans were no longer around. Recently the 100’s of square kms of plastic floating in the North Pacific Gyre was highlighted in the media, this is examined in the chapter I am currently reading. The author continues with his examination of plastic by detailing how micro fragments of plastic are entering our food chain, swallowed by fish, birds and most importantly krill. It seems we are slowly poisoning the oceans and one of our main sources of food. I ordered this book after reading a review in The Age. But why did it interest me? Firstly, I am currently writing a novel set on a newly terraformed world, a...

Hi all, Up until this morning's writing session I was thinking what the hell has happened in my writing this week that would possible be of interest to the readers of this blog. The usual had happened: I had not reached my quota of words, but at least I could say I had written every day. But then it happened, I was writing a seemingly innocuous conversation between the two main characters of my novel when suddenly, like they had both taken acid and were on the same trip, they realised they had a point of reference, some reason for not hating each other. I had reached a crucial point in the novel where two very different characters realised they had something in common. Something they/I could build on to shape the rest of the novel. I had not plotted this point, it just happened by accident, but it is crucial to the novel. Yaaaaa characters. Now I hope to build on this coming together of two very dysfunctional souls. I may now start to believe those writers who say that their charac...