A bumper crop of writing advice, lately. SF Novelists is turning into a good little community (Good job, Tobias and eveyrbody else there). Lots of stories and advice from working writers.
Then there's also all around nice guy and author Joshua Palmatier that has been showing some of the tools of the writer lately.
Let me backup. One of my favorite books on writing is Stephen King's On Writing. When Mr. King finally gets to the actual writing part, he talks about having a toolbox and then goes on to talk about the tools you have in the top of the tool box, the ones you use everyday, grammer and spelling. Then he talks about some of the big tools everybody ought to have in the other drawers of the toolbox (your toolbox does have drawers, doesn't it?) like plot. My reference is my own toolbox, which is a big Craftsman contraption that stands four feet tall and has wheels. I don't think a writer's toolbox needs to be so big, but it helps to know I'm not talking about a little tackle-box rig here. As an FYI, this blog is named in honor of Mr. King's book. He calls his story fragments "fossils." I like my ideas a little fresher, and his analogy on how to exhume the story works the same. When I roamed the woods of my youth, I ran into bones, not fossils (although I have gone fossil hunting since then), hence the name.
Josh is showing some of the tools in the other drawers. Plot, you can think of like a level or square. Josh is showing us the chisels, specialty hammers, and saws. You should check his blog out. And definately check out the past posts he's done. there' lots of good stuff there. Like this recent post on Sympathetic Characters.
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