critique groups

Emphasis, Critique Groups, the Novel

In today’s Journal * How Not to Indicate Emphasis * Offering Critiques * The Novel * Of Interest How Not to Indicate Emphasis Re Sue Colletta’s post (linked in “Of Interest”) on how not to emphasize words and phrases in fiction, I left a comment and thought I would share it here just in case any of you might find it useful. I learned in an Aldus PageMaker design class about a jillion years ago, if you HAVE  TO  USE  ALL  CAPS (headlines, etc.) it’s a good idea to hit the spacebar twice between every pair of words, as I did in the example. … Read more

Elizabeth Sims, Fiction Lengths, Critique Groups

In today’s Journal * Elizabeth Sims and Fiction Lengths * Critique Groups * Of Interest Elizabeth Sims and Fiction Lengths In Elizabeth Sims’ article on why fiction writers should write short stories (see “Of Interest”) I was pleased to see her offer “a general guide on length and terminology.” It spurred me to look at my own fiction length and pricing guide, and to revise it for the first time since 2017. I use fiction lengths and terminoloy to determine price. There’s no difference in how I price a short story and how I price a long short story (novelette), … Read more

The Journal: Crawl Before You Walk

In today’s Journal * Quotes of the Day * Memorial Day * Topic: Crawl Before You Walk * Of Interest Quotes of the Day “[W]e writers are great with imagination, yet we don’t know enough about licensing and copyright to imagine what products could come from our IP.” Dean Wesley Smith “He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.” P.G. Wodehouse “It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of … Read more