Comments on Women of Mystery: On Crimespace, Writer's Block, and The Dickens Cha...

Tim - A very cool effort, I'll be watching. Instan...

2007-12-16T20:52:00.000-05:00

Tim - A very cool effort, I'll be watching. Instant publishing is a heady experience. And hey, do crime fiction fans know about this? The terror may strike when the holidays are over and the buzz starts to grow....

Thanks for mentioning the Dickens Challenge, which...

2007-12-15T01:26:00.000-05:00

Thanks for mentioning the Dickens Challenge, which will launch officially on Monday with somewhere between five and seven stories, one of which will be mine.

I never outline -- I'm a total pantser. I think plot is what characters do, and I want to set them free to do it. So I also do a lot of going back to tidy up. But the fun of the Challenge is that you CAN'T, and the people who have written chapters so far all say they're having a terrific time and blowing out the pipes as they do so.

Of course, we're all going to come face to face with terror sooner or later.

Probably sooner.

Tim Hallinan

I know some authors do it...but I can't begin to i...

2007-12-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

I know some authors do it...but I can't begin to imagine how anyone writes from start to finish without restructuring, rewrites, and major editing. And this Dickens Challenge...man, to post without knowing where you're going next???!! (Hallinan compared The Dickens Challenge to doing Nanowrimo in the display window of Saks!)

I checked out Pratchett's statements, and he wishe...

2007-12-13T15:41:00.000-05:00

I checked out Pratchett's statements, and he wished especially to proclaim (as does the witch Granny Weatherwax's crude but informative sign when she checks out of her body to go riding behind an animal's eyes) "I aten't dead" So, I'll take him at his word and be cheerful.

Thanks for the alert, Lois.

This is an interesting idea, and I did post pretty...

2007-12-13T14:06:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting idea, and I did post pretty unedited stuff in my NaNo online excerpt, but it takes tremendeous bravery or laissez-faire.

P.S. I can't get over the Pratchett news. He's written a ton, but he's one of my absolute, all-time favorites.

Not a chance. I can't leave a chapter alone at al...

2007-12-13T13:21:00.000-05:00

Not a chance. I can't leave a chapter alone at all. Besides which, I don't write from an outline, so I sometimes have to go back and change facts to make later events work right!