Aeryn Rudel's Blog, page 23

A Week of Writing: 2/15/21 to 2/21/21

Another week of writing, submitting, revising, the works.

Words to Write By

This week we return to the bottomless well of writerly wisdom that is Elmore Leonard.

“All the information you need can be given in dialogue.”

― Elmore Leonard

If you’re not particularly adept at describing people, places, and things and you don’t want to commit the sin of dropping massive chunks of exposition on your readers, well, then dialogue might be your best friend. My work is often dialogue heavy–it’s the first t...

A Week of Writing: 2/8/21 to 2/14/21

A little late, but here’s one more week of authorly activities.

Words to Write By

This week it’s one of my favorite Hemingway quotes.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

I don’t think there’s ever been a point in my writing career where I wasn’t keenly aware that I needed to get better and also striving to do just that. I believe in order to really get good at this whole writing thing, you have to embrace the fact that there’s no end point, ...

First Draft vs. Revision: One Plotter’s Preference

Writing a novel is a process of many individual steps, but all those steps generally fall under two very broad stages: drafting and revising. Just about every author I know prefers one or the other, and I thought I’d share a little about my preference and the challenges I face with the other side.

Well, I prefer drafting by a fucking mile. Like, it’s not even close. I’d rather write the first draft of ten novels than revise one. But why is that? Let me see if I can explain. It’s important to not...

Weeks of Writing: 1/25/21 to 2/7/21

Missed a week, but I’m back with a double dose of writerly doings.

Words to Write By

This week’s quote comes from author Joyce Carol Oates.

“The first sentence can’t be written until the final sentence is written.”

—Joyce Carol Oates

I think I may have used this quote before, but it’s still a good one, and recently I’ve found it to be an absolute truism in my work. Now, sure, when I start writing a novel or story there IS a first sentence, but I’ve found nothing is more likely to change in subse...

Withdrawing a Withdrawal: A Submission Saga

I often encounter a general sense among authors that magazine editors are waiting to pounce on them if they make a mistake or need to ask for an appropriate allowance in the submission process. The belief is that an error or request will result in a scathing rebuke and maybe even inclusion on the dreaded “do not publish” list. In my experience, this simply isn’t true. The editors I’ve had the pleasure of communicating and working with have been polite, professional, and understanding. Most of th...

Submission Statement: January 2021

The first month of the new year is in the books. Here are all my submissions, rejections, and other writerly doings for January 2021

January 2021 Report CardSubmissions Sent: 11Rejections: 7Acceptances: 0Publications: 1Further Consideration: 0

January was a good month for submissions, and eleven gets me off to a great start toward my goal of one-hundred for the year. The bad news is I got skunked, acceptance-wise, for the first time in twelve months. Yep, my acceptance streak is over. I t...

Taking All the Credits: 15 Years of Writing

I’m currently in the process of putting together an author’s CV, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and it’s been fun to stroll down memory lane and to see what I’ve written and published over the last fifteen years. I presented a broad overview of my writing credits last year on the blog, but since I have to do it anyway for the CV, I thought I’d break down those credits in more detail so you can see what I’ve been up to in the last decade and a half. Plus, I’ve added a few since th...

A Week of Writing: 1/18/21 to 1/24/21

Another week of writing come and gone. Have a look.

Words to Write By

This week’s quote comes from author Jane Yolen.

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.”

–Jane Yolen

One of the pieces of advice you’re bound to hear when you’re a writer is that you must write as often as possible, every day if you can. Now, I have some op...

A Week of Writing: 1/11/21 to 1/17/21

Another week of writing in the books. Have a look.

Words to Write By

This week, we’re going back a couple hundred years for a great quote from Jane Austen.

“I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on until I am.”

— Jane Austen

My take on this quote is that it’s essentially how to deal with writers block, or more specifically how I deal with it. For me, writer’s block generally manifests in an inability to get started. I sit down at my computer filled with fear and apprehension that ...

The Complete Picture Part 2: The Gaming Years

In the previous post, I discussed the last nine years of my short story submissions and presented data about the number of submissions, rejections, and so on. A friend of mine (Hi, Jared), however, wondered about the overlap between my short story submissions and my previous career in the gaming industry. It’s an interesting question because between 2012 and 2016 I was publishing in both the gaming industry and the broader speculative fiction market. So, I thought it might be fun to take a look ...