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Writing Tip: Writing For Technical Geeks


Trebs

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For today's tip - we have a great writeup by Myr that we hope will be useful to you as an author. If you have a tip you think the community would find useful, please let Trebs or Renee Stevens know!

 


Writing for Technical Geeks


by Myr

 


As many know, I'm a rather technical person by nature. It is in my blood to research stuff into the ground so that I can understand all the angles of a thing. I think and rethink on things all the time. It is thus when I went into a writing block that I decided to research the more technical aspects of writing. I therefore purchased and read a LOT of 'How to' books on writing. Many of them were from the group Writer's Digest, which is quite good at getting professional writers to write about how they write.

 

As anybody that reads my writing knows, I'm a strictly science fiction and fantasy writer. Even things that look 'normal' are not. As such, a lot of the books I looked into were about writing.

 

If you can get your hands on it, I strongly recommend David Gerold's "Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy"

David Gerold is famous as the writer of the most famous Star Trek Episode of all time "Trouble with Tribbles". His book does a wonderful job of posing the questions you need to ask yourself as you develop a world. World Building is especially important in my two favorite genres: Fantasy and Science Fiction.

 


The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing is one I just finished reading. It has a lot of great essays by established authors that address every major area of writing. The book is also free to check out if you have Kindle and Amazon Prime.

 

I've also recently ordered two more books that I haven't read, but appear to have some good tips. "The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction: 6 Steps to Writing and Publishing Your Bestseller!" by Phillip Athans.

I have not read very far in it yet, but I'm definitely hooked and think it will provide some worthwhile tips for my current epic fantasy and epic science fiction writing projects.

 

The other book I've ordered but haven't yet devoured is: "How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play"

I believe this will be useful in fighting through those bouts of writer's block.

 

I hope this helps!

1 Comment


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Good information Myr. Although I'm not a coder or author, I am a Trekker and most certainly a GEEK. I was so proud to learn that Gerrold, besides being a great writer, has another trait we all know and appreciate- He's gay!!

 

I also knew that my favorite episode, The Trouble with Tribbles had to have been written by someone very special when I watched the 2nd Season episode of Star Trek: TOS, way back in 1968.

 

Steve

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