the rest is easy.

1. Write till the end (forget word count etc. Tell your tale.)

2. The real writing begins on the second go around. Add, subtract, polish, eliminate and so on until you get to the end.

"The night was..."

came tumbling down.

five-mile swim. As he eased his 6'4" frame into the medieval, hay-filled chaise lounge, he took note of his surroundings.

It was his habit, as a former member of the castle's elite high level security squad. Old habits died hard.

And so did Vikings.

Chapter 2: A Handmaiden No More

* * *


*** exerpt from Storm Night by James Patterson (dictated not read)

Writing fiction is easy. Sit down. Type. About 85,000 - 100,000 words later, you'll have a story.

Writing good fiction? Well, that's different. Three simple rules.

1. Write. And write. And write. Shoot for 100,000 words in six months. How hard is that? It's a half and hour a day. Talking about writing isn't writing. Learning about writing isn't writing. Rewriting is writing, though.

2. Read. And read. And read. You can't get better if you don't read. So read some more. Especially your genre. Study it. Understand it. Read some more.

3. Critique. This is the silver bullet to creating a short cut. The sooner you have someone who understands the craft of writing critique your work, the faster you'll get better.

But writing fiction isn't hard. You just fucking do it. Go write 1,000 words, now. It'll take you an hour. It doesn't matter if it sucks.

which is why I begin most of my work with:

"Dear Penthouse Forum: I never thought this would happen to me, but I swear every word is true..."

. . . was a man from Wisconsin . . .

Between the kind of shit you feel like writing about and an interesting story.

Related: the details that make someone else give a shit about your creation.

Related: pace.

related: "would I still want to be reading this?"

"Really, CE, the fifth page of debate about how the magic system works is a little much."

"Well, in a real world with magic, entire PHILOSOPHIES would be based on how it works! It would be debated for aeons!"

"...zzz..."

let other people write about what other people would want to read.

I, personally, would read five pages of your "Philosophy of Magic in CEs World" because you would come by your passion for it honestly.

more seriously, passion does not render clumsy exposition unclumsy.

And "characters debate metaphysics as a device to reveal worldbuilding" is clumsy.

I was assuming talent and a modicum of craftsmanship. obviously, you still have to execute.

Edit: I was actually being serious.

chapters of my bullshit if interested.

I'll do you one better: I am happy to give you license to critique.

I thought you were speaking, you know, abstractly.

obviously, I'd be honored.

Enjoy.

I'm pretty brutal.

I've sent Austin's novel back 6 times already.

he thinks that just by putting a strapping guy on the cover in a shredded shirt that he can move copies off of those grocery store aisles...

I haven't fixed it, yet.

...one of these days.

To finally get around to starting procrastinating.

Acid.