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Featured Author
John Brown is a new author. His epic fantasy series begins with Servant of a Dark God. Visit him at JohnDBrown.com.
Featured Book
Ohio farm boy John Rayburn comes face-to-face with his doppelganger from another universe, resulting in a worlds-spanning adventure to get back home again.
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Request a SFWA Author to speak at your school, library, or public event. (learn more)
Nebula Awards®
Awards for excellence in genre-themed writing and dramatic media. (visit site)
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Tips for Beginners
You Can Take It With You
Interstellar space travel. We dream about it. We write about it. Science fiction writers have come up with all manners of interstellar travel, ranging from multigenerational arks, to wormhole generating warp drives that can spit you across the galaxy in a blink of an eye. As wondrous and amazing as all these approaches may be, most suffer from a very fundamental problem.
Tags: interstellar, physics, robert metzger, science, space travel
Murder Your Darlings
It’s the nature of writers to fall in love with words, particularly their own. Clever turns of phrase excite us; we beam like proud parents when our protagonists take on lives of their own; a shapely plot twist can turn our heads. There is nothing wrong with indulging in the occasional fling-as long as it stops in draft. When time comes to make that final revision, however, you must harden your heart, sharpen the ax and murder your darlings.
Tags: james patrick kelly, revising, revision
TANSTAAFL and the Novice Writer
Article by Elizabeth Moon on advice for novice writers. Novice writers have to take some responsibility for their own careers. The good information is NOT that hard to find. The novices who don’t find it–and don’t find it repeatedly–are resisting the truth.
Tags: Elizabeh Moon, Intermediate, Moon, writing
The Basics
It doesn’t matter if you write fiction or nonfiction. You have to know the basics.
Tags: beginners, Melisa Michaels, writing
Science in Science Fiction: Making it Work
An article on getting science right in SF stories.
Breaking Into Print: What Length Sells Best?
Article by Melisa Michaels on how to build a writing career.
Tags: Intermediate, Melisa Michaels, Michaels, writing
Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer’s Shortcut to Stronger Writing
Writerisms describes overused and misused language. In more direct words: find ‘em, root ‘em out, and look at your prose without the underbrush.
Tags: C.J. Cherryh, Cherryh, Intermediate, writing