PrenticePieces's profile picture. Querying The Bone Ransom, my post-colonial fantasy. For a free download of related poems, see http://prenticepieces.com/Downloads

Bruce Byfield@Prentice Pieces: Querying TBR

@PrenticePieces

Querying The Bone Ransom, my post-colonial fantasy. For a free download of related poems, see http://prenticepieces.com/Downloads

Use AI? Hell, all Robert Johnson had to was go down to the crossroads and make a little deal.


Replace your mouse with an artist's tablet, and you have a massive ergonomic improvement. Holding a stylus is much more natural than reaching out to clutch a mouse


The writing gods visited me at 4am on Christmas Day, and I now have complete revision plans for chapter 2, including a title and the first 500 words. And I didn't have to leave out any milk and cookies!


A hard lesson about writing fiction: for me, the oldest part of a work is often the part that is most in need of revision, if not deletion. It's the part I've lived with the longest and the part I'm most emotionally invested in.


I find any form of brainstorming is more useful than an outline. My personal preference is for free writing, arguing for and against each possibility as it occurs until one wins out.


I am well-aware of the ethical, environmental, and legal issues concerning AI. But emotionally, what I object to most is its promotion of mediocrity.


The filming of Casablanca was chaotic. The script was written while filming, and actors didn't know what motivations they were supposed to have. Many thought the film would be a bomb. Yet Casablanca became a classic -- in the end, all that mattered was the result.


My first chapter is now "The Unkindness of Ravens."


No matter whether you choose 1st or 3rd person narration, sometimes switching to the other one as an exercise can give you new insights.


New writers often focus on the first page. They might be better off focusing on the first 50 pages if their goal is to be traditionally published. Few agents base their decisions on more than that -- and many less.


"Show, don't tell" is not specific enough to be useful. My personal revision? "Dramatize unless doing so kills the pace."


My literary darlings mostly fall into two categories. The first are ones that are clever and sound well. Mostly, they should be murdered. The second are ones that are promising but need more thought or development. They should be. saved and worked on in later drafts.


One thing I will never understand is lack of curiosity. But what else can you expected from someone once described as having a "magpie mind?"


One of the challenges of medieval fantasy is finding suitable metaphors. Modern technology and urban comparisons don't have any reference. For instance, "telescope" would be meaningless. Agricultural or hunting ones do, but few modern writers have the needed knowledge.


That's part of what replotting can be.


When querying seems a dead end, there's 3 choices: self-publishing, abandoning your novel, and revision. I've chosen revision, partly because I'm stubborn, but mainly because I more likely to learn more.


Finding the right chapter title suddenly makes the needs of the chapter clear.


Tolkien’s writing style is by no means consistent. LOTR starts with the children’s style of The Hobbit, but it soon swerves off in several directions. At times, it can be so archaic that some modern writers find it difficult. But at its best, it has a beautiful simplicity.


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