H. Paul Honsinger
1. Learn everything you can about English grammar, composition, literature, and vocabulary. You must master these things like a mechanic masters his tools, like a surgeon learns anatomy and physiology.
2. Write. Write a lot. Write every day. Take courses in college where you will have to write a lot (and not necessarily "creative writing"). Write for your high school or college newspaper. Just write so you will get fluent--so that the process of expressing your thoughts in the written word will stop being difficult and laborious and frustrating and become natural and relaxed.
3. Read. Read constantly. By reading, you will get a feel for what works on the page and what doesn't, how to develop a plot, how to build a character, how to end a book, and so on. You learn the language of narrative and the tools of the writer. If you read enough, you will make these tools your own without having to sit in a classroom and be told what foreshadowing is.
2. Write. Write a lot. Write every day. Take courses in college where you will have to write a lot (and not necessarily "creative writing"). Write for your high school or college newspaper. Just write so you will get fluent--so that the process of expressing your thoughts in the written word will stop being difficult and laborious and frustrating and become natural and relaxed.
3. Read. Read constantly. By reading, you will get a feel for what works on the page and what doesn't, how to develop a plot, how to build a character, how to end a book, and so on. You learn the language of narrative and the tools of the writer. If you read enough, you will make these tools your own without having to sit in a classroom and be told what foreshadowing is.
More Answered Questions
Jerry Sonner
asked
H. Paul Honsinger:
As the Author of work Product do you have any influence with Audible? They seem to have little regard to keep up with book series, they poorly title them and often paper back, trades, and hard covers are published and on market six or more months before they can get their act together even when the CD version is at hand.
Caitlin
asked
H. Paul Honsinger:
This question contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)[
This isn't actually a spoiler question I just don't want to offend anyone. Some Si-Fi authors (such as Tanya Huff) completely get rid of the problems with sexuality by making it not an issue in their universe. In your universe, I assume that the gynophage (low numbers of women) plus boys entering the Navy as young as 10 years old must mean that there must be a high rate of homosexuality. Is this an issue in universe?
(hide spoiler)]
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