by Melinda Snodgrass | May 16, 2015 | About Writing
First let me say upfront that I find starting a book to be the most difficult part of the process. What drives that? Stone cold fear. Fear that I can’t possibly do this. Fear that this will be the project that verifiably proves that I have no talent and I have just been fooling publishers, editors and readers all along. I’m like a dog or a cat circling the pillow trying to figure out if they will lie down and in what position they will do so. Once I type that beginning...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Apr 23, 2015 | About Writing
I’ve hesitated to wade into this mess. Not because I’m particularly cowardly, but because so many thoughtful people with far more stature in the field then me have very eloquently spoken out about the Hugos and the slate. I’m speaking of course about George R.R. Martin and Connie Willis. Here’s what I thought I could add to the discussion. Brad Torgersen who is one of the Sad Puppies wrote the following on his webpage — “A few decades ago, if you saw a...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Feb 25, 2015 | About Writing
So I’m writing a very emotional scene in my current Wild Card story and George R.R. had given me a note to add in thoughts and mentions of another character and earlier events in a particular exchange. I was trying to answer the note because it’s a valid note, but it was a jarring leaden intrusion into the flow of the scene. So I went looking earlier in the scene and found the perfect place to insert this call back to previous events. That’s one of the harder lessons to...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jan 11, 2015 | About Writing
Hey, the new edition of ACES ABROAD, the fourth book in our Wild Card series is now available from Tor books. It also has extra crunchy goodness with two new stories. One by Carrie Vaughn www.carrievaughn.com, and another by Kevin Andrew Murphy Kevin.A.Murphy. Do check it out. The Wild Card series has often set stories in diverse places around the world, and our alternate history can be both fun and alarming.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Dec 3, 2014 | About Writing
Most people who know me know that I’m a big proponent of the outline or the story break. I think it helps you meet deadlines and not fall into seductive dead ends that look good at first then you write a hundred pages and realize you’ve been dumped in a swamp. The argument against the outline is that it’s rigid, a straight jacket, confining. But it’s not. If you know the big scenes and the ultimate end of the book there is still plenty of room to move and breath and...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Nov 20, 2014 | About Writing
I’m closing in on the end of the first book in the space opera series — THE HIGH GROUND. I knew in a general way what the big action sequence was going to be, but I’m almost there, and it’s crunch time. A general sense wasn’t going to be good enough. I needed specific scenes. So I grabbed the cards, assigned a colored pen to my two POV characters, and another color for my antagonist, and settled onto the floor in front of the board and started tossing up...
