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FOR WRITERS

Short & Sweet

September 9, 2011
Tags: Brevity, TWITTER, aTwitMystery
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I am deeply into my second aTwitMystery story, this one titled "A Hitman's Lot." It brings an old writing task to mind.

The term "tightening up" a story or scene is easy to understand. It is getting from point A to point B with fewer words. It is an editorial comment still aimed in my direction on occasion. If you find yourself in similar straits in your rejection mail, try writing your story as a series of tweets on Twitter. You simply can't do those page-long blocks of description in 140 character squirts (including spaces). I'm having a lot of fun with aTwitMystery, but it is scary. It's writing with the readers looking over your shoulder, and commenting, going into publication with each tweet. I originally did this to bring folks to my website, and it is doing that. However, the twit story genre is the writing equivalent of doing improv.
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For those who wish to write the best stories of which they are capable.
The Write Stuff
Everything I know about writing worth passing on. In this work, step-by-step, I show what I did. From that it is intended that writers form their own paths toward producing their art.
Science-Fiction Writer's Workshop-I
For Beginners
A year after I published my first short story, Editor George Scithers said to me that I was so close to moving from just fooling around to producing professional-grade stories, why not write about that. This is the result, the How-To book I wish I'd had when I first started writing.
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For writers & readers. For writers, this is stuff I've learned, am in the process of discovering, and stuff that is imparted to me by other writers. For readers, I believe the more one knows about what goes into the writing of a story, and into the life of being a writer, the more one appreciates an author's writings.

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Barry B Longyear

Barry B. Longyear is the first writer to win the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer all in the same year. In addition to his acclaimed Enemy Mine Series, his works include the Circus World and Infinity Hold series, Sea of Glass, other SF & fantasy novels, recovery and writing instruction works, and numerous short stories.

How to write the best stories of which you are capable
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