Posts Tagged ‘M John Harrison’
The rules of timekeeping are supposed to be simple in fiction. Choose a tense when you start writing, and stick to that tense throughout — whether it’s past, present, or (god help us) future. Sometimes, though, cutting to the present tense in your past tense story can create some unusual & noteworthy effects.Today at SpecTechnique […]
Filed under: MICRO-MANAGEMENT, STRUCTURE, WRITING STYLE | 5 Comments
Tags: alfred bester, john le carre, M John Harrison, Mary Gentle, poul anderson, vampire hunter d
Deformed Cliches
A quick entry today…. And from the Stygian abyss of the past, dear reader, I bring an evangelical gospel of good news, nothing less than a divine commandment…. Receive this blog post as an omen!!! Because today at SpecTechnique we’re looking at deforming cliches, and how to bend ‘em back into shapes that are fresh […]
Filed under: WRITING STYLE | Closed
Tags: Balzac, Cliches, John Kennedy Toole, M John Harrison, Robert Silverberg, Thomas Mann
The Agreement Turnaround
Today at SpecTechnique I’ve got a short article about a neat little dialogue trick I like to call the agreement turnaround. One sure sign of limp dialogue in a story is when it follows a boring question-answer, question-answer, yes-that’s-very-interesting pattern. So to generate conflict and delight, I think it’s helpful to break up that flow whenever […]
Filed under: DIALOG | 1 Comment
Tags: dostoevsky, kathryn cramer, M John Harrison, Mary Gentle, new weird, sidney morgenbesser
An observer might…
Happy Monday, dear SpecTechnique readers. One of the reasons I enjoy reading 19th century novels (just like I enjoy reading old-school SF like E.E. “Doc” Smith & A.E. Van Vogt) is that I like seeing devices that have now fallen out of fashion. Because after that, I can try out ways to make ‘em new […]
Filed under: EXPOSITION, VIEWPOINT, WRITING STYLE | Closed
Tags: Balzac, charlotte bronte, dostoevsky, M John Harrison, vampire hunter d
Unexpected Explanations
One of the most powerful ways to generate delight for your reader while writing SF/F, or maybe just writing period, is the device of the unexpected explanation. To do this, begin with an expected, ordinary line, followed by an explanation rooted in your SFnal milieu. In M. John Harrison’s brilliant Nova Swing, a character enters […]
Filed under: Uncategorized, WRITING STYLE | Closed
Tags: cyril m kornbluth, dostoevsky, frederik pohl, Gu Long, H.G. Wells, K J Bishop, M John Harrison, space merchants, Tolstoy
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