Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 12

A.I. = N.O.

 Do you see AI as a blessing or a curse for you as a writer?

I struggled a little to come up with something more than:

It's a curse. Full stop.

I think AI as a concept will prove to be an invaluable tool in the future. It's here to stay and can and will improve our lives in immeasurable ways through the tech sector, medicine, and every science on Earth. For creative pursuits? It's a death knell.

Why Silicon Valley is so obsessed with an AI takeover of creativity is not too hard to discern: they have...

The Future is Here, Watson

 

Do you see AI as a blessing or a curse for you as a writer?

Let me be your Hal, and simulateAI applied to the mystery genre. If you’re a Plotter, AI will be your Scrivenerand help you with the mess of spaghetti called Plot. If you’re a Pantser stuckinside the web of your own design, AI could untangle you, summarize what you’vedone, and pitch a curveball twist because you can’t see yourself writing thestory without help. AI is your Watson.

Cozy. AI can help with brainstorming Plot, and create...

Writing time, sleep and exercise: On Habits, Good and Bad, by Harini Nagendra

Question of the week: What bad habits have you ditched to make yourself a better writer? What good habits have you picked up?

I've always written while holding down a full-time job, so I need to squeeze in writing time into my non-working hours. If I have to think back over the past decade of writing, in which I have written 8 books, fiction and non-fiction - finding time to write has been my biggest challenge. Even harder: finding uninterrupted time in which to write, because interruptions alway...

🎶Just One of Those Things🎵 from James W. Ziskin

What bad habits have you ditched to make yourself a better writer? What good habits have you picked up?
Me trying to write with Tinker on my lap















Trigger warning: I’m going to butt up against conventional wisdom here.
—Hi, my name is Jim and I’ve ditched the practice of searching for and replacing the word “just” in my manuscripts.
—Hi, Jim!
Lots of writers practice this ritual. Somewhere along the way, the word “just” became VNG (verbum non gratum). “Just” gets bullied. Writers pick on it. They’ve de...

Ditching the bad

What bad habits have you ditched to make yourself a better writer? What good habits have you picked up?

By Dietrich

Writing’s as much about what you don’t do as what you do. Kick the bad habits and keep the words flowing and the stories humming.

One of the worst habits I had was overthinking and fretting about the first draft. There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank page and trying to craft the perfect opening line and second-guessing every word. Over time, it got easier as I gained confidenc...

Ditch Those Bad Habits!

 

Terry here, with our question of the week:
What bad habits have you ditched to make yourself a better writer? What good habits have you picked up? 
 These questions bring up other questions:  1) Am I better writer that I was?  2) Do I have good habits?  3) Where did I get them? 
 So, let’s get started. Number one. Am I a better writer? I think so. I just decided to go through some manuscripts that I abandoned for one reason or another, with the idea of sprucing them up and moving forward. I star...

Changing Those Bad Writing Habits

What bad habits have you ditched to make yourself a better writer? What good habits have you picked up?

Brenda here.

If we're talking bad writing work habits, lately, I've become somewhat more organized in how I deal with a manuscript. After many rounds of editing manuscripts for books and short stories, I've learned more of my tendencies with every project. When writing, I'll change details about characters or mix up what happened when or who said what to whom. I used to mix up at least one name ...

Read, Write, Read, Repeat by Poppy Gee

Has being a writer changed the way you read? What are you reading now?

Current read: The Bluff by Joanna Jenkins. Previous read: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore.

I read more crime novels now that I've been published as acrime fiction writer. Before I wrote crime, I used to read mainly literaryfiction. But I always liked scary movies, especially dark psychologicalthrillers. My favourite movie as a kid was the Freddy Krueger series: a monsterwho appears in your dreams and kills you while you...

THE EDINBURGH MURDERS by Catriona

 Has being a writer changed the way you read? What are you reading now? 

Today it has! Reviews!

Just kidding. I never read reviews. But what I'm trying to say is that my new book is out today. In the UK only, mind you. But keep reading if you're in the US and you're interested. 

Buy links
Isn't it lovely? I'm very verbal but even I've got enough visual literacy to know that that is a great jacket. Edinburgh purists will wince, because it doesn't depict an actual street in the city; it's three buildi...

How I read by Eric Beetner

 Has being a writer changed the way you read? What are you reading now?

I’d like to think I read the same way as I did before I became a published author. I think reading “like a writer” is something that lives inside those of us who decide to take the plunge, even from a young age. 

It is similar to the way I watched films in my youth. The difference I saw in people like me who chose to attend film school, is that we saw beyond the light and shadow on the screen. I wanted to know the mechanism be...