Tag: writing (Page 4 of 5)

Why You Should Read More Short Stories

August 28, 2017 / Kyle A. Massa

In the mood to read something a little different? Short stories might be just what you’re looking for.

Okay, you know short stories are shorter than novels. But they aren’t just about brevity. They’re also easily digestible, often unconventional, and uniquely indicative of an author’s strengths. Let’s go deep on this topic.

Short Stories Can Be Finished in One Sitting

If you have limited reading time, committing to a novel could prove difficult. It would be like watching a movie thirty minutes at a time. You might even forget who’s who!

Short stories are often designed to be read in one session. If you’re an infrequent or sporadic reader, this spares you confusion when you sit down to read. Plus, you get a new experience every single time you open your book, e-reader, or computer. (Or whatever the kids read on these days.)

Short Stories Defy Conventions

Short stories are generally weirder than long-form narrative. This is due to a couple factors.

First, techniques that might grow tiresome in a longer narrative become more palatable in smaller doses. Examples include second-person narration, atypical point of views, or present tense. It might be difficult to sustain any one of these techniques for a few hundred pages. But in a short story, they provide a refreshing change of pace.

Second, short stories generally require less commercial appeal than novels. Since the readership for short stories isn’t especially large, writers can afford to be a bit zanier than usual. If you enjoy writers pushing the envelope on what a story can be, you’ll enjoy short stories.

Short Stories Showcase a Writer’s Skill

This opinion is completely unfounded and totally based on my own personal feelings. And yes, there are tons of great writers who’ve never written a short story. But I really do feel that someone who writes good short stories is usually a stronger writer than someone who doesn’t.

When you read an author’s short fiction collection, you’ll discover not one great idea, but many. It’s the difference between a hit single and an entire album; sure, you might be able to strike gold once, then make a living off copies of what’s already worked. But those who can frequently diverge from where they started are often far more interesting.

Parting Thoughts

I do hope I’ve convinced you to read some more short stories. If you’re ready to do so, here are some of my favorites. Check them out!

“The Dowager of Bees” by China Mieville
“I Can See Right Through You” by Kelly Link
“The Great Silence” by Ted Chiang (Note: This is one of the only stories I’ve ever read, short or long, that has ever made me cry.)
“Black Dog” by Neil Gaiman
“Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor
“Sandkings” by George R.R. Martin
“Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders
“Walkdog” by Sofia Samatar
“Unbelievable” by Kyle A. Massa (Yes, this is a shameless plug.)

“Inspiration Will Fail You”

June 12, 2017 / Kyle A. Massa

I had a professor in college who often said, “Inspiration will fail you.” She was very right about that.

Many authors wait around to be inspired. They wait for the muse to appear with an amazing idea, one that fills the page with vivid prose and vibrant action. And when inspiration fails to appear, those writers remind themselves that tomorrow is another day, and they don’t write anything.

That’s why inspiration will fail you. It’s lazy, it’s inconsiderate, and it doesn’t ever show up when you want it to.

Sure, sometimes we find it. Sometimes our brains spark and whisper, Let’s write this down. But this is certainly not the norm. Far more often, our work hinges on those days when we don’t feel inspired.

Think about it this way: if you only write when you’re inspired and you’re only inspired on good days, how will you ever practice your writing? Writing, like any skill, requires hard work in exchange for improvement. If we don’t put in the hard work until inspiration hands us an idea, then we’re probably not writing frequently enough to improve.

Furthermore, there’s a common assumption that every word one writes must be perfect, or that all writing should, at the very least, be interesting. This notion can preclude some writers from writing anything at all, regardless of how inspired or uninspired they might feel. But not all writing needs to be readable.

Every, every professional writer will tell you that a written work doesn’t even come close to being readable until the second draft, at the earliest. Even then, there might be three, four, five drafts to go before it’s something worth sharing.

If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe some dude named Vladimir Nabokov: “I have rewritten—often several times—every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.”

If inspiration hasn’t paid you a visit in a while, try writing anything—literally anything—and see what happens. Try a simple sentence of a character doing something: “Lilly looked out the window at the tree in the yard, and she thought to herself, That tree wasn’t there yesterday.”

From here, we can go in all sorts of different directions. Where did the tree come from? How did the tree get there? And who is Lilly? What does she have to do with this tree? What does this tree mean to her? Sometimes, one sentence is all it takes to get things moving.

Of course, you might decide later that that sentence and all your writing thereafter was lame, anyway. Even so, at least you’ve written something down and you’ve gotten your practice for the day. Anything’s better than nothing, even if your anything isn’t particularly good.

Truth is, successful writers are those who write with consistency. That might mean something different for everyone, but what it certainly doesn’t mean is waiting for inspiration.

Trust me. You’re going to be waiting a long, long time.

3 Handy Proofreading Shortcuts

June 5, 2017 / Kyle A. Massa

I have a confession to make: I do not like proofreading. It takes time, it’s not especially fun, and I still seem to miss some errors. To quote Billy Joel, it would be nice if I could “Get it Right the First Time.”

But that’s wishful thinking on my part. There may not be any Billy Joel songs about proofreading—but that doesn’t mean it’s not essential. No one wants to read sloppy work.

Fortunately, we can make it easier on ourselves with a few tricks. Here are a few I like:

Read It Aloud to Yourself

Yes, our teachers were right. Reading work aloud forces us to pay closer attention to the words. If you stumble over a sentence, you’ll need to smooth it out. Or, try reading aloud to someone else. They’ll give you tips on the sentences that stick out.

This trick is especially effective with dialogue. You’ll notice details while listening that you won’t notice while reading. For example, I tend to append characters’ dialogue with the phrase “or something.” It’s sort of like my trademark, or something.

I’m not sure why, but my first-draft brain seems to think “or something” makes dialogue come alive. It doesn’t. I read my work aloud to catch them on the second go-around.

Use Your Computer’s Voice Command

Sometimes it helps to have your own work read back to you. This allows you to listen for any weirdness you might’ve missed while reading. However, you won’t always have a human reader handy. In that case, you can use your computer’s voice command.

I do this one all the time. I’m not sure how it would work on a Windows or Linux computer, but on a Mac, you set a keystroke command, then highlight the text you want to hear. Hit your command keys and a pleasant robot voice will read the words to you.

Be warned: this voice is emotionless. Think Ferris Buehler’s professor. It’s about listening for mistakes, not getting a sense of rhythm. (Unless a boring computer voice narrates your story. In which case, please feel free to exclusively use this method.)

Use Online Tools

Hemingway Rewritten is a pretty killer app for this proofreading. It gives you suggestions on how to make your writing more concise.

When you copy and paste a paragraph into Hemingway, the program highlights overlong and strangely-structured sentences (like this one). It also catches passive voice. Plus, Hemingway is totally free. I think we can all appreciate that.

Bonus Tip: Let Commentors Proofread for You

The internet loves finding flaws in everything. Therefore, if you make a mistake, you can be sure someone will notify you in the comments.

Boom. Free proofreading!

In Conclusion

Proofreading is like eating vegetables—it’s not especially fun, but it’s essential for growth. I hope these tips have been helpful (and more palatable than brussel sprouts).

Now please excuse me. I have to proofread this thing.

Scrivener: Disorganization Gets the Boot

April 3, 2017 / Kyle A. Massa

If you’ve ever written written a novel, then you’ve probably experienced an especially terrifying organizational nightmare. I’m talking character outlines, story outlines, pages and pages of research, random ideas, maybe even illustrations of people or places—and that’s all before you even start writing the actual draft. While programs like Word and Pages might be just fine for the average writer, you need something with a little more umph.

Enter Scrivener.

Created with long-form writers in mind, Scrivener might be one of the best tools a writer could dream of. I found it more or less on accident (I thank you, almighty Google), and I was happy to purchase it. Let’s take a look at some features.

1. You know those story ideas scattered all over your desktop? Put them in one place.

This is probably my favorite feature of Scrivener: you can consolidate everything in one document. No more flipping between pages to see your research and your working document. You can do a split screen with the manuscript on one half and your overly-detailed character outline on the other.

The research function is also very cool. Let’s say you’re writing a crime novel set in the 20’s, and you’d like to know what sort of forensic capabilities folks had back then. You’ve found your article, but you already know you’ll have to refer back to it many, many times before the book is done. With Scrivener, you can add the web page right to your document and glance at it whenever you want.

2. You can view and rearrange chapters.

I have a pretty lousy memory, but I doubt I’m the only person who can’t remember what happened in chapter one, especially when working on a really long piece.

Scrivener allows you to enter quick details about your chapters in notecard form. You can give yourself a brief summary of what happens in each chapter for quick reference. If you’re juggling multiple POV characters, you can even throw that onto the notecard. It’s a great way to save yourself some time.

Furthermore, Scrivener lets you rearrange entire chapters. Say you have a flashback that you think needs to come sooner. Instead of doing a massive cut and paste in Word (that just sounds dangerous), you can pick the chapter up and place it elsewhere.

3. You can compile your manuscript with ease.

Many authors find it difficult to compile manuscripts into ebook form. I’ve never had to do it, but I can only imagine the struggle of convincing word processors to agree with me. Scrivener compiles your writing into many forms, including regular manuscript form and, yes, ebook form. And it doesn’t fight about it, either.

A program as complex as this has a steep learning curve. I had to take a few hours just to go through the tutorial materials, including text and video, in order to learn how to do some of the fancier features. However, the time you spend on this step will be saved many times over in the future, when you’re not fumbling over formatting.

I really like Scrivener. It helps organize my work, puts everything in one place, and, best of all, makes me look like I actually know what I’m doing.

Should You Publish Your Fiction to Your Website?

February 6, 2017 / Kyle A. Massa

A few days ago, I published a piece of flash fiction to my website. It was the first—but not the last—time I’ll do it. The piece I went with is called “Large Coffee, Black.” It’s a quick little tongue-in-cheek horror story for coffee drinkers.

Many folks on the internet think publishing work to your website is a good idea. Just as many think it isn’t. After trying it myself, I’m in the former camp. If you’re debating whether or not to publish your fiction on your website, here are a few things you should consider.

Pick a Piece You Really Like

Put a lot of thought into what you’re going to post. Don’t just share any old story you wrote in high school (unless it’s awesome). Choose a piece that you love and can’t wait to share. Make sure it’s something that represents you as a writer.

I chose “Large Coffee, Black” because it was fun to write. A dude falls in love with coffee, and things go from there. It’s pretty strange, but then, that’s part of the reason I like it so much. Also, I think it was pretty unlikely to be published elsewhere.

That’s not to say the quality is poor (I hope!). It’s just that it’s a very strange piece, not quite mainstream enough for a mainstream audience and not quite speculative enough for a speculative fiction audience. I could shop it around for a while and probably never place it anywhere, or I could share it with people who will (hopefully) enjoy it.

Why couldn’t I publish it on my site and also in other online markets? Glad you asked.

Once It’s Published, It Can’t Be Published Again

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but a lot of pro-paying online fiction markets don’t accept unsolicited reprints. Which means they won’t take anything that’s already been published—including material on your website.

Sure, some online markets accept reprints. They always take them at a reduced rate, however, and they’d much rather have original work. Therefore, the requirements for acceptance will be much more stringent for you than they will be for someone whose piece hasn’t yet been published.

Of note: if you’re an independent author, none of this matters. Even if you’ve already published your work on your website, you can republish again on Amazon without penalty. A lot of indie authors do this with serial fiction, or with short story collections.

Be Okay with Giving Your Work Away for Free

The purpose of publishing on your website is not to make money—at least, not directly. Once you hit submit, anyone anywhere can read your piece for no cost. Some people use this as a reason not to publish on a personal site, but I think they’re missing the point.

If you’re selling a product, any product, consumers will be less likely to convert if they haven’t seen said product in action. Writing is the same; most people buy books from authors they’ve already read and liked. It takes good reviews and positive word-of-mouth referrals for readers to try new authors. Or, a good sample.

That’s the beauty of giving away a good piece of writing. Readers can read your work at their leisure, and, if they like your sample, they’re far more likely to check out the next thing you write.

So Should You Post Your Fiction to Your Website?

Publishing on my website was the right thing for me. I came to that decision after a lot of thinking and a lot of reading. If you’re considering posting your fiction on your website, I’d recommend doing some research of your own.

Every writer wants his or her work to be read. So why not publish something and get it out there?

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You’ve already heard so much about “Large Coffee, Black,” so why not read it here?

The Value of Joining a Writing Group

October 5, 2016 / Kyle A. Massa

Moscow’s Sreda Literary Gathering, 1902 – Wikipedia

Just the other day, I finished a first draft of a piece I was working on and thought to myself, This is pretty darn good. I brought that piece to my writing group a week later, and after fifteen minutes of critiquing, I was reminded of this fact:

The first draft is never, ever good enough.

Little reminders like this are why writing groups are so valuable. Writing alone and never sharing anything with anyone works for some people, but if you want to write professionally, that’s not really an option. Somebody’s going to read your work, whether that be family members, beta readers, or your editor. And, as solitary as writing can be, sometimes it’s nice to get some outside input.

The writing group I’m a member of meets in Boulder every two weeks. Though we all write speculative fiction, everyone brings a differing perspective; we’ve got a pharmacist and mother of two, a couple retirees, a computer programmer, a landscaper, a guy who sells fruit in the midwest for four months out of the year so he can write for the other eight.

It’s these unique personalities that make our critique sessions so beneficial. For example, we’ve got one member who can find something to like in every piece and another member who can, without fail, pinpoint exactly what isn’t working.

Having these diverse perspectives in a writing group is key. “I liked it” is great and it makes you feel good, but it doesn’t improve your piece. Likewise, “You need to change everything because I hated it” doesn’t give you much to work with, either. The best writing groups are specific with feedback and judicious with both praise and criticism.

In addition, you’ll find that your fellow writers tend to have unique backgrounds that can help you out. The programmer in our group, for instance, challenged me on a character description in one of my stories: “The man who lived in A-2 looked like he’d just gotten home from work. Probably worked at a software company, from the look of his clothes; white and blue checkered shirt, along with a red tie and black pants.”

That’s a bit of a stereotypical description for someone in the computing field, now that I look at it. At the time I was writing it, however, I thought nothing of it. Good thing the folks in my writing group had my back!

Which brings me to my next point, the fellow writers in your group will see everything in your piece that you didn’t. They’ll see the inconsistencies that you missed, the subplot you forgot to resolve, even that killer theme that you didn’t realize you’ve woven into your narrative. It’s because writers often get too close to their work, to the point that they don’t even see the fine details anymore.

Writing groups can be hard to find, however, especially if you live in a small town. I found my group through Meetup.com, which has a whole category for writers. There’s also Codex—I’ve never used it, but I understand it’s an online community for writers. However, Codex does require that its members meet certain criteria, and it’s a specifically speculative fiction community. If you don’t meet the requirements or aren’t writing in a speculative genre, you might try a similar community like WritersCafe.

Also, Googling “writing groups” works pretty darn well, too.

So get out there, meet some fellow writers, and share your work. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

4 Books Writers Will Love

May 23, 2016 / Kyle A. Massa

For anyone who wants to become a great writer, becoming a great reader usually comes first. And if you’re going to be reading, why not read about writing?

Here are four books on writing that I think you’ll really dig.

#1: On Writing by Stephen King

Four books on writing? See what I did there? Anyway…

My girlfriend makes fun of me for talking about this book so much, but it really is brilliant. King discusses so much with relatively little space: his beginnings as a writer, his process, some of his greatest successes, some of his biggest mistakes. He even delves into personal territory, discussing the accident that nearly took his life and made him consider retiring from writing.

One of my favorite parts of this book is the honesty with which King approaches the subject. His recurring message is that not all writers are brilliant, innately gifted people. Many writers, like King himself, just work harder than everyone else. They love writing, they do it every day, and that’s what makes them special.

For writers, I think this is a great message. Essentially, King argues that hard work (with a sprinkling of luck) is going to beat raw talent, more often that not.

#2: Walking on Water by Derek Jensen

Derek Jensen is an interesting guy, and he has a lot to say about writing. Framed by his tenure as a college professor, this is a book not just about the technical aspects of writing—it’s about the purpose of writing, and what good writing should do.

However, this book is not just about writing. It’s about our education system, it’s about identity, it’s about independent thought. Walking on Water has a lot of depth to it, and for writers, I think it’s especially appealing. Unlike On Writing, it doesn’t necessarily offer specific ideas about the process. Rather, this book invites the reader to think critically about what one puts down on the page.

P.S. My favorite part is Jensen’s number one rule of writing, which is “Don’t bore the reader.” Seems like good advice.

#3: Creative Writer’s Handbook by Philip K. Jason and Allan B. Lefcowitz

Full disclosure: this book was assigned reading in college. Neither of these guys were my professors or anything, though, and this book has a lot to offer. Though maybe not as eminently readable as our previous two books, the Creative Writer’s Handbook is still a must-have.

The best part about this book is the detail. The authors go in-depth on a number of the more technical aspects of writing, including point of view, word choice, narrative, drama, mood, and dialogue. And it’s not just for fiction writers, either—there’s a section on poetry, another on creative non-fiction, and even a brief chapter on play writing.

As far as educational books for writers go, this is one of the best I’ve read.

#4: Writing 21st Century Fiction by Donald Maass

Full disclosure, again: I haven’t actually finished this one. But hey, even if the book ended where I am, I’d still recommend it.

Donald Maass is a literary agent in New York, so you know he knows his stuff. His insights into modern fiction are outstanding. In particular, I love the way he outlines the debate between literary fiction and genre fiction.

Essentially, Maass argues that the line between the two has been blurred, and that they both borrow characteristics from the other. Literary fiction sells the way genre fiction is supposed to, and genre fiction now emphasizes prose the way literary fiction does. And that’s just one of his many excellent points.

If you’re looking for insights into the modern publishing industry, this is a great place to start.

In Conclusion…

Read these books! And feel free to let me know if you have any favorites of your own. After all, one can never have enough books on writing.

A Place Where You Can Focus

March 28, 2016 / Kyle A. Massa

My Desk

I’m going to take a few minutes of your time to talk about my desk. It’s the kind of desk that needs to be talked about. At length, preferably.

My desk has a smooth, dark wood finish, one large drawer where I keep my computer, another on the side for headphones, my hard drive, and other random items. Above that is a whole shelving unit, upon which I’ve stacked some of my favorite books, and, for some reason, a calculator. My desk also has a whiteboard, perfect for writing down tasks for the coming week, along with the occasional inspirational quote. Up there now: “I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” Kurt Vonnegut said that.

Why should I care about this guy’s desk? you might be asking yourself. First, because it’s the greatest desk of all time (thanks, Sara, for the great gift). Second, because if you’re trying to write, it’s important to have a place where you can sit down and actually write.

There’s a lot of research to suggest that your surroundings often dictate your behavior. For example, if you get in bed at night and stare at your computer for an hour, you might find it hard to sleep. That’s because your body now expects to go on the computer when it’s bedtime, not sleep. By contrast, if you use your bed primarily for sleeping, you probably won’t have any issues falling asleep.

The same applies to writing. If you enter a space which you sometimes use for writing and sometimes use for something else, it’s easy to get distracted.

Before I had my desk, I used to do my writing at my kitchen table or on my couch. But the kitchen table is where I eat, and the couch is where my girlfriend and I watch TV shows after work. After a while, I found that when I sat at the table, I wanted to eat breakfast more than I wanted to write. And when I sat on the couch, I didn’t feel like writing—I just felt like watching TV.

But when I sit at the chair at my desk—a roller chair, by the way, which is the coolest kind of chair there is—I’m not in the mindset to have breakfast or watch TV. The only thing I do at my desk is write, so that puts me in the mindset of writing.

Do you need a writing desk? No, not necessarily. (Though if you do get one, I recommend the Micke from Ikea. That’s what I got and, if you haven’t noticed, I think it’s pretty baller.)

I think the salient idea here is to create a space where you only write. That could be a particular room in your house, or maybe a particular coffee shop. Wherever it is, make it your writing space. You’ll be pleased with the results.

Some Things to Remember When Rejection Gets Us Down

March 21, 2016 / Kyle A. Massa

Pencil Eraser

I don’t mean to sound morose or anything, but writing and rejection might as well be the same word. Writejection? Yeah, that’s it.

It’s hard not to get discouraged. It’s hard to work on a manuscript for months or in some cases years, only to have an agent send back a form rejection without even really reading it.

But that’s alright. In fact, we shouldn’t let writejection get us down. We should use it to do better.

Point A: writers need to write a lot of crap before writing anything worth publishing. I’ve literally never heard of anyone publishing their first attempt at a novel. Even an author’s debut novel isn’t really their first; they’ve probably written a bunch more before that one that just weren’t good enough for anyone to read. For context, Stephen King wrote about five novels that didn’t get published before Carrie and Brandon Sanderson wrote around ten before Elantris, his first wide release. That’s the hard truth of writing: the first manuscripts we write are practice, and nothing more.

But that’s okay. No one uses everything they write. Many writers write entire backstories for their characters, or subplots that never go anywhere, or just cool little scenes that are fun, but don’t really move the plot forward. Writing is just like any skill: it’s the work that people don’t see that makes it great.

And another thing to remember about work from pro writers: they write gross first drafts, too. It doesn’t matter who writes them—they are, by their very nature, gross. But remember, we never see first drafts from pro authors. We only read the finished product, which has gone through countless iterations. If you don’t believe me, believe Ernest Hemingway, who said, “I rewrote the ending of Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, 39 times before I was satisfied.”

But here’s maybe the most important rule of all: even the best writers have been rejected just as much as we have.

This all might sound terribly daunting, and I suppose it is. But don’t let it get you down. I mean, if you really want to be a writer, would you want it to be easy? It wouldn’t be worth anything if it was. We have to work hard, we have to write every day, we have to earn those rejections before we can really get anywhere. And that’s how it should be. That’s how we know that what we’re doing is really worth doing.

So when we’re just collecting rejections, there’s only one thing we can do. Today, let’s write something better than we wrote yesterday.

Podcasts for Writers

May 25, 2015 / Kyle A. Massa

Being a writer can be really lonely. In fact, the great Neil Gaiman recently compared writing to death, so that says a lot about the process. When you spend your time in a room by yourself, it can be tough to avoid the feeling that you’re all alone.

Sorry. That got really sad, really fast.

Anyway, if you’re a writer and you’re feeling lonely or maybe even a little dead, try listening to a writing podcast. Nobody writes in a vacuum, so it’s encouraging to hear what great writers are doing, what’s going on in the industry, and how you can improve.

These are three of my personal favorites, and, since I’m a bit of a nerd, they’re mostly oriented for a speculative fiction enthusiast. It is known.

The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy

This is probably my favorite podcast to date. Hosted by writer David Barr Kirtley, the Geek’s Guide has amazing guests each and every week. Just to name a few: George R.R. Martin, Philip Pullman, Margaret Atwood, Chuck Palahniuk, Neal Stephenson, Ursula K. Le Guin, David Cronenberg, and Felecia Day.

Kirtley’s also an excellent host. An accomplished short fiction writer, he knows his stuff when it comes to fantasy, science fiction, and geek culture in general. One of his best moments as a host is episode 145 with Kazuo Ishiguro. At the end of the initial interview, Ishiguro turns the tables and interviews Kirtley on all things speculative fiction. These are two very smart guys going back and forth on where speculative fiction fits into literature and why it’s not always accepted by the mainstream. It’s a very cool moment.

Speculate!

Speculate! was my introduction to writing podcasts, and a good one at that. Hosts Brad Beaulieu and Greg Wilson work very well together on the air and they’re definitely knowledgable on the subject. While they don’t get quite the same number of high-profile guests as Geek’s Guide, their show is still pretty awesome. And, even if you haven’t heard of everyone on the show, it’s always nice to discover someone new.

Every once in a while, they also do roundtable discussions on particular books. These are great for writers because the hosts break down the author’s style, analyze entire passages, and even talk with the authors themselves. If you’re looking for in-depth writing discussion, you’ve found your podcast.

Writing Excuses

Though I’ve listened to this one the least among the three, I like it a lot already. Hosted by Mary Robinette Kowal, Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells, each episode is a fun and insightful fifteen minutes. That’s right–where Geeks’ Guide and Speculate! run about an hour, Writing Excuses episodes go for just a quarter of that time.

The official tagline of the podcast explains the runtime: “Fifteen minutes long, because you’re in a hurry, and we’re not that smart.” They’re pretty darn smart, though. They cover any topic a writer could think of, from agents to outlining to world building to critiquing. Each episode ends with a writing prompt too, which is fun when you’re looking for ideas, which is, like, always.

In conclusion…

Podcasts are really cool. The ones listed above are excellent resources for information on the publishing world, the speculative fiction climate, and just about anything to do with writing. They’re perfect for those days when you need a little inspiration. Plus, they’re free. And you don’t have to be a writer to love free stuff.

Go listen!

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P.S. Does anyone know of any other good podcasts for writers? I’m always looking, so if there are any you particularly like, please let me know!