Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Uplink

There's a great piece by Robert J. Sawyer on "The Eight Things New Writers Need to Know" over at Writers of the Future from their December newsletter. (Originally in WotF XXII). Well worth the quick-read, and there are probably several things on that list that we should bring up here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

FWIW, the list of Hugo and Neb winners that I haven't read would probably scare people. RJS would have walked away from me.

An enjoyment and appreciation of science and research. Keeping up with science news. An ability to extrapolate. I think these can make up for whatever the reading list lacked.

Anonymous said...

I'm in the same boat, Kristine. There are always way more books out there to read than I have time to go through, and the last time I sat down with a list of Hugo and Nebula winners, I ended up feeling pathetic. Same when I went through the list of Tiptree winners. I've read several of each, but probably not even a quarter of any of those lists.

I'm with you on keeping up in science news. Also, paying attention to social movements and knowing where you stand on those things; a lot of very impactful SF has been written with the intent of illuminating social conditions.

Kelly McCullough said...

Kristine,

Me too. The idea that you have to read Robert Sawyer before you can publish is one of the more patently silly pieces of advice I've ever heard.