Terry Shames's Blog: 7 Criminal Minds, page 15

Questions on a Theme

What’s the best question you’ve ever been asked as a writer? What's the worst? And what question do you wish you were asked but nobody’s ever asked it?

Brenda here. I'm going to anchor this week's question around bookstore signings.

The best question: Could you sign my copy? Meeting readers and having them like my work enough to purchase a book or be willing to take a chance and buy one without having heard of me before is always hugely gratifying. It never gets old.

I met Tom at a signing on Satur...

Lone Wolves Get Lonely Sometimes by Poppy Gee

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

For the past decade I have built up a small but robust editingbusiness focusing on crime fiction. It employs one person – me.

I have a background in newspaper and magazine journalism,specialising in subediting, and a master’s degree in creative writing. Mybusiness is called The Lone Wolf Writing and Manuscript Appraisal Company. Thename sounded dramatic, and it made me laugh. I think writers are like lonewolves, roaming majesti...

"Strawberry Mango Forklift", by Catriona

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

I genuinely didn't want to use one of my book jackets to illustrate this post, so thank you S J Rozan for sharing Ken Chang's Fb post earlier today.

AI is an irrelevance for me as a writer, as far from impinging on my work as drink-driving laws impinge on my commute. (I write at home and I don't drink.)

Two caveats to that, though: I was talking about generative AI trained on large language corpora made up of stolen words, not those algori...

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 ...