Yuku free message boards

Remove this ad

I am a professional writer - I get paid for fiction I've written, though it's not enough to earn a living. I also write SW fanfic (which, obviously I don't get paid for). There are a couple of short pieces, no more than a couple of pages, and others which are almost novellas. The SW is all pilotfic, though there's a pretty wide range within that name, and from times a few years before Yarvin, to NJO, LotF and beyond.

My professional fiction is in writing western novels. They are shortish novels, 45,000 words, which are aimed primarily at the library market (that's the publisher's choice of market for westerns in the UK - not my decision). The brief is for pacy books with plenty of action. Fortunately, I've never had much trouble writing action, whether it's a (vibro)knife fight, a gunfight on a moving train or an X-wing battle. My 12th book came out at the end of September. As I love writing about my pilots so much, I transplanted Wedge, Tycho, Wes and Hobbie to the west and made them lawmen - there's more details about it in the fan creations forum.


One piece of advice to writers - learn to spell, keep a dictionary and thesaurus handy and READ WHAT YOU'VE WRITTEN. Check it makes sense. So often I see similar-sounding words substituted for one another eg: He got up and wondered about the room. What was he wondering about the room - why one wall was painted pink ? Why there were no windows ? Of course, the writer meant 'he wandered about the room.'. Wonder and wander are two different words ! Peak, peek and pique are different words. Make sure you know which one you should be using. Nothing will make you look more amatuerish than writing something like : "he peaked through the window at her".