In the groove...

Writing is always a strange experience. Sometimes it is an incredibly hard experience, but then there is what I call ‘the groove’.

The groove is a strange spot that I—and I’m sure a lot of other writers—have where the words just start to flow. A slow steady novel suddenly becomes something you can barely type fast enough to get out. It’s an amazing experience and a wondrous thing, at least if the words that flow out of the groove are good.

I experienced a bit of that groove today and it was the first time in a good while. I haven’t been as prolific as I would like to be as of late, but I think I might finally be turning the corner and getting some words out. And the more time I can spend in the groove, the more likely that is to happen. 

The Manuscript Rant

I knew when I started Take the Helm back up it would only be a matter of time before I wrote this column. This is my “please don’t do this on manuscripts” column, the one that you will probably see from every editor in the business today.

• Don’t send me a story in supposed ‘manuscript’ format. People haven’t used typewriters in two decades, please start using Times New Roman instead of Courier and for goodness sake, if you want text to be italicized please do it yourself.
• Learn how to insert tabs. While I prefer inline page indents, I know not every writer has enough computer savvy to insert them. But I do expect everyone to know how to use a freaking TAB button. It’s been around since the 1920s, folks. At this point, the next manuscript I receive with a bunch of spaces to start each paragraph may get sent back unread.
• If your sentence has more than one action, thought or idea in it, consider revising it in to two sentences. If it has more than three, it’s unreadable and it needs to be revised. You would be surprised how many stories that I end up chopping apart paragraph-long sentences during editing time.
• The enter button is your friend. Go pick up five books from five of your favorite modern authors. Flip through them now and look at the lengths of the paragraphs. Notice how most of the authors keep them short? That’s because shorter paragraphs are easier to consume for modern audiences. If your paragraphs are some sort of three page diatribe out of Dostoyevsky, you’re doing it wrong.
• If you use verbs ending in “-ing” more than once a page, you probably need to revise some of your verbs. This is probably the biggest enemy of New Pulp authors, as a lot of traditional pulp writers loved these kinds of phrases. But modern readers are more sophisticated and you have time to proofread, so please leave them out. 

I’m sure I could go on, but that’s probably enough for now. Part of this is a rant, I’m sure, but these are all points that will make writers write better. Obviously none of them (other than the tabs one) are always 100% true, but fort the most part they will make whatever you write read better. 

Extreme close-ups

So my three year old wanted her picture online so I decided to oblige:

This is by no means the only extremely close shot we have of her either. She loves to mug for the camera, but doesn’t quite know how to stand to get her picture taken yet.

The Memorial Day sale on my book Living Legends has been extended through Thursday, May 30 at noon CST, so get your copy while you still have a few hours to do so. As the year continues, expect several more promotions like this to crop up on Metahuman Press books.

Aliens Among Us authors: I should have e-mail out to everyone by this time next week as well with either a yea or nay on the anthology.

Has everyone seen the Modern Pulp Heroes cover now? If not, we will end today’s blog with this thing of beauty by John Davies:

This is your life, Nicholas Ahlhelm

So of course I start my own personal blog here… and my internet dies. Story of my life, folks. I’m posting this from the local library right now, where most of these posts will probably come from for most of the next week.

On the writing and editing front, I’ve been doing some final proof corrections on Modern Pulp Heroes, reading through the pile of stories for Aliens Among Us and working on my next (and final) Pulp Obscura tale for Pro Se Press. So not doing much at all.

I’ve been watching way too much television through the power of library rented DVDs in my spare time. I’m currently ¾ of the way through Smallville season 6, half way through the Iron Man anime and finishing up the first season of Leverage. I have the second series of Luther waiting in the wings when I finish those.

Related to all that television watching, I’ve also started reading Liz Braswell’s Nine Lives of Chloe King, the inspiration for the rather good ABC Family show of the same name. In a move surprisingly opposite to my usual preferences, I think I like the show better. That being said I still have the second two books to finish, so things could approve.

Any golden age comic fan should immediately go buy a copy of Showcase Presents All-Star Squadron immediately. I’m only four issues in, but it’s already my favorite comic purchase of the year so far.

There’s only so much time in the world and that’s about all I have here. I’ll still try to keep this blog updating every couple days though, so stay tuned for that.

If anyone has any questions they want answered by me, your illustrious author and publisher, please feel free to ask at my Formspring.

And we're back!

I’ve decided to revive this blog. Back in the day I used it as the preliminary version of Super Powered Fiction. With that site up and running for over a year and a half now, I don’t feel a need to post that kind of thing here.

Instead this page will serve as something of an author blog. I’ll update it when I have projects in the work, when I have to vent about deadlines, or when I have something new and interesting to post about my personal projects or life.

I’m becoming more of a pointless photo-taker as well, so maybe some of those will seep on to the site as well. On the other hand, maybe not. I’m not good at promising things.

People who want to read my reviews should head over to the aforementioned Super Powered Fiction where you can not only find articles, but also links to all the Examiner pages I currently run out of my secret control center here in Eastern Iowa.

And, to quote a great philosopher, that’s all I have to say about that.