The Skill List Project
For several years, I ran a series of articles called The Skill List Project on the SF Novelists site. It was my attempt to list all the skills involved in being a professional SF writer, plus advice on improving those skills. Here’s the complete list of instalments:
At the moment, there seems to be some problem with the web site where I originally posted the articles. I’m in the process of moving them to a better location, but it will take time. Apologies, and please bear with me.
- Introducing the Project
- Vocabulary
- Learning to Love Grammar
- Punctuation and Its Discontents
- Reading Voraciously
- Reading Judiciously
- Reading Analytically
- Viewpoint and Story Experience
- Viewpoint Selectivity
- Avoiding Viewpoint Mistakes
- The Raconteur Viewpoint
- Plot Units
- Starting to Plot
- Plot Flow
- Scene Design
- Scene Beginnings and Endings
- Writing Descriptive Passages
- Word Choice and Wordspace
- Fight Scene Basics
- Fight Scene Pacing
- Dialogue Preliminaries
- Dialogue Purpose
- Dialogue Attribution
- Characterization Skills and Sources
- Characterization Tools
- Characterization Motivation
- Theme
- Symbolism Preliminaries
- Imagery
- World-Building Preliminaries
- World-Building Specifics
- Exposition Preliminaries
- Exposition Execution
- Cause and Effect
- Research
- Discipline
- Comedy
- Money Handling
- SF Conventions
- Professionalism
- Diction
- Rewriting
- Comfort in Your Own Skin
Seminar on Writing Prose
Some time ago, I created a seminar on “How to Write Prose” for a convention in Toronto. It comes in several formats:
- As a single big HTML file
- As a Microsoft Word document
All formats have the same content. I hope the material will be useful and thought-provoking for writers who are learning the craft.
James Alan Gardner 