Tag: fiction

    • The 5-Minute Idea Test: Is This Worth Writing?

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      Greetings from the edge, Every writer eventually gets asked the same question. Not the one about when you’re going to pay the bill, sir, but the other one: where do your ideas come from? There’s a well-worn trope about “the muse.” Stephen King famously describes his as a gruff, middle-aged man who smokes, drinks bourbon,…

    • Thursday 16th April 2026

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      Greetings from the edge, Deep into On Writing right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thoroughly enjoying The Three-Body Problem, which insistently is not about the problems that arise from needing to dispose of three cadavers, and I’m also really enjoying the alien-eye view of human jingoism and bloodthirsty expansionism in The Word for World…

    • Sunday 12th April 2026

      Greetings from the edge, Funny thing, but as soon as you tell someone you’re a writer, they ask for advice on how to write. It doesn’t matter if you’re any good or not. It doesn’t matter if you’re published. Once you tell anyone who likes books that you write, after the standard “What do you…