Writerly Linkee-poo

Dean Wesley Smith is dinning on the bar-b-qued remains of publishing myths. This one is about rewrite. There's a lot in here I agree with, and a lot I disagree with. I think the point would be, "don't be so critical of yourself." As to his rant on critique groups, I agree. You shouldn't write your work to appease your group, instead you should find a group that will point out things like, "So why don't they have radar in this far future story, so they could see the rockets coming" (that's one made on one of my stories, and the truth is I didn't tell part of the story correctly so they misunderstood what was happening). Don't go to the groups that say things like, "Maybe if you had this person do this instead" or "You'll want to use this word here." Those are death. At worst (or best) the group can say, "This would have worked better for me if..." and then you take that with a grain of salt the size of Utah. (grokked from Jay Lake)

Debbie Ridpath Ohi's notes on Wendy Loggia's speech “I Wanted to Love This: Seven Reasons Why Your Manuscript Gets Declined.” Good reading. This goes back to the, "Once you've gotten the mechanics down it still doesn't mean you're writing a story." And as Stephen Kings says, "It's all about the story." (can't remember how I got there, sorry who ever pointed this out)

Jim Hines spills the beans about Neil Gaiman. Which includes the excellent, "#9 Neil Gaiman is the reason nobody teaches “I before E except after C” anymore."