J.D. Moyer

science fiction author, beatmaker, against fascism

Category: Fiction Writing Page 5 of 7

Word Craft #1: Catherine Cavendish

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On January 8, 2019

In Fiction Writing, Word Craft Series, Writing

I’m starting a new series on this blog: Word Craft – A Deep Dive Into Writers’ Methods and Practices. I’m fascinated by how writers write — processes are more varied than you might guess — and this interview series is an opportunity to see how other authors practice their craft (and to borrow their best techniques).

My first guest is fellow Flame Tress Press author Catherine Cavendish. Welcome Catherine!

-J.D.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tell us a little about yourself and what inspired you to become a writer.

I live near Liverpool in Britain although I was actually born in Hereford. I have had a varied career which has taken me from advertising and sales through to vocational guidance and helping people of all ages and from all walks of life to get jobs and embark on new careers. These days I am lucky enough to be a full time writer of horror – mainly of the supernatural, ghostly, Gothic kind.

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Some of My Favorite Writing Advice

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On December 13, 2018

In Fiction Writing, Writing

I’m a collector. I’m convinced there’s a gene for it. As a child I collected stamps, coins, and fantasy miniatures (one of those collections continues into adulthood). In addition to various small items, I collect information in various categories.

My favorite collecting category writing advice. I keep a vast spreadsheet of advice and “writing rules” from my favorite authors.

Here are a few highlights from that collection:

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Boosting Word Counts – November Productivity Test

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On October 22, 2018

In Creative Work/Career, Fiction Writing, Lifestyle Experiments, Writing

I’m in awe of authors who can crank out 5-10K words a day. And there are a lot of them out there. To achieve my own writing goals, I don’t necessarily need to achieve those heroic word counts. But I would like to bump up my productivity significantly.

Ideally, I’d like to consistently write at least 5000 thousand words a week. While that’s an order of magnitude less than many writers, those words still add up. If I can keep that pace up for at least ten months, I’m at 200K words per year. That’s a couple of novel’s worth, or four novellas, or forty short stories, or some combination thereof. (Of course, many of those words will end up deleted, or archived forever, so there’s something to be said for surplus words.)

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Three Pillars of a Writing Career

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On June 15, 2018

In Creative Work/Career, Fiction Writing, Writing


Last year when visiting our journalist friend Eve Conant in D.C., I asked Eve for advice in getting my own writing career started. She passed on some advice that had been given to her at one point by a mentor, and that advice stuck with me. While I don’t remember her exact words, the gist of it was to think about building my writing career on three pillars:

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Fiction Writing Update, Thoughts on Motivation and Incentive

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On October 31, 2017

In Creative Work/Career, Fiction Writing, Metaprogramming, Writing

First-generation self-driving truck

Two new fiction sales to announce:

My story “The Equationist” will be published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, either in the Jan/Feb issue or possibly the Mar/Apr issue. Publishing in this particular magazine has been a goal for a long time, mostly because I enjoy reading it so much, but also because the editor, C.C. Finlay, has always been generous with feedback, which is invaluable.

Getting in F&SF wasn’t easy … Finlay rejected nineteen stories before he accepted one.

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