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I’ve started looking for ways to focus my writing. Two ways I’ve found useful are chapter titles and the book blurb. The soon I start working on these, the quicker I find direction.

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I’ve started looking for ways to focus my writing. Two ways I’ve found useful are chapter titles and the book blurb. The soon I start working on these, the quicker I find direction. #writing

My newest chapter: “The Rune-Haunted Hills.” #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

An unwelcome fact: Success writing requires at least intermittent self-discipline. A confession: I struggle with this necessity almost every day. #writing

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If you use chapter titles, avoid mundane ones like “Into the Wilderness” or “We Enter the City.” You wouldn’t be satisfied with such titles for your novel (I hope). So why should you be satisfied with them for chapters? Find a way to entice with your chapter titles. Make them memorable/ #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

No, no,no! Just because this chapter introduces a shaman is no excuse to title it “Shaman You.” #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I don’t know about other people, but my unconscious is much smarter than my conscious. Half an hour of free writing, and ideas are pouring out of me at a rate that deliberate thought can’t match. #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Having a language barrier between characters is realistic, but makes for some advanced narrative gymnastics, especially in a crowd scene.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Here’s a riddle: One of my characters says, “My father adopted me. Not many fathers would do that.” How does that make sense? Why would she say that? #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Sometimes writing seems to consist of lurching from one spur of the moment inspiration to another, And it’s a wonder what barely controlled panic sometimes comes up with. #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The main challenge of writing isn’t coming up with an idea that’s worth writing about. It’s figuring how to develop your idea to use it to best advantage. #writing

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

For me, a spell-checker’s main purpose isn’t to correct spelling. It’s to catch typos.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“The point of art is to help you like your life better.” -Barbara Kingsolver #writing

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Latest chapter": "A Game of Girl and Woman." This may be a fantasy first: a chapter that revolves around seclusion rites for adolescent girls, written by a man. 😀

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Latest Chapter: "A Game of Girl and Woman."

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

One or two characters on a journey is hard to make interesting. The best solution I found was to give them carefully selected encounters on the way, each of which moves them closer to their goals. #writing

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I don't envy literary agents. So many pleas for validation that must be turned down & an inbox so full that few queries can be given their full attention. And always the pressure to sign, seeing the same faults over & over, & the search for ways to streamline. Non, merci! I'll stick with querying

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

“So, tonight I have burned all my candles Leaving only ashes in their wake And at times, I get so hard to handle' Knowing one more simple song Has swiftly taken wing, And I'm left alone to hear the song A lonely candle sings.” -Stan Rogers, “Song of the Candle”

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Every generation bemoans the current state of writing in its time. It’s only after time has weeded out the bad writing that any generation’s writing is appreciated.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

When I first started my recently completed novel, I used a single pov. I thought that would make writing easier, and in some ways it did. But the novel only came together when I added a second pov, which made things harder but let me add badly needed scenes and perspectives. #writing

Darogar is a smith who was captured in a war, and had both knees broken so he couldn't escape. He has arranged a series of parallel bars in his smithy that he swings along to get around. Being a smith, he has extremely strong arms.

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One of the pleasures of starting a new novel: that early moment when I realize it’s truly a story in its own right with new characters and new directions. #writing

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Now I see the point of saving discarded passages: two chapters in two weeks! #writing

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The advantage of two povs is that by the time I start to tire of one I’m switching to the other. #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Contrary to what some believe, AI summaries are neither objective nor accurate. They’re not exactly wrong, but they tend to miss nuances. And if you haven’t read the original, you’ll never know what’s missing.

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I honestly don't recall one being particularly harder than the rest. At the most, I leave my choices overnight, and have a choice in the morning. I think it's mostly a matter of learning to listen to my unconscious.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Dune is an influential SF novel, but its ban on thinking machines reflects its time. In the early 1960s, it must have been much easier to imagine such a ban. Today, computers are so widely used that their abolition seems less likely — although at times it remains a tempting fantasy.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Want to replace the em-dash? Listen: The em dash is the nineteenth-century standard ...but the em dash is too long for use with the best text faces.... Use spaced en dashes – rather than em dashes or hyphens – to set off phrases.” -Robert Bringhurst,The Elements of Typographic Style)

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I generally don’t outline before I start to write. But my new novel has several interwoven plots, & is partly based on a bunch of out take scenes. So this time, I need notes about how the plots inter-connect & where to find the pieces. It’s not quite an outline, but it’s as close as I’ve ever come.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

My second novel is now well under-weigh. The chapters so far: *The Uses for a Bed *A Fox Called Wolf *The Welcoming Ways *The Midnight Masquerade *Calling Up a Scarecrow #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I don't describe myself as an AI hater. "Hater" is a word that AI use to suggest positions like mine are irrational. I am simply contemptuous of the hyperbole, morality, environmental damage, and the low standard results of the technology.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

In Grade 4, we summarized everything we read. I still don’t know why. Some quirk of the teacher? But that experience has served me in academia, tech, & now in querying my fiction. It taught me the importance of summarizing as a learning tool — & is why I would never use AI to generate a summary.

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Today, I realized I’d been writing a chapter in the wrong pov. That was annoying, but in correcting the error, I found that there things that I had written in the wrong pov that the right pov woudn’t do or say. So at least I had the consolation that the two povs were distinctly different. #writing

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I spent this morning reading "A Modern Guide to Querying Literary Agents." It's a comprehensive, highly useful book. #writing

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

An important concept for writing dialogue is punctuation. The classical example: He believes that he withdraws because she nags. She believes she nags because he withdraws. #writing

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Only writers know the joy of adding a telling detail that strengthens and freshens a scene. #writing

Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Bruce Springsteen once announced that he would retire and be replaced in his band by a body double. The new lineup began a UK tour, but it was immediately obvious that the double was actually Springsteen -- causing Pete Townsend to remark, "Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss."

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Finished chapter: “The Court of a Thousand Mice”

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

I can’t believe it: someone who tried to scam me by impersonating a real agent last year just tried to scam me again.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

When I read more than one book at a time, it’s because at least one is boring, and I’m not quite ready to abandon it for some reason.

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Bruce Byfield @byfield.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This week I’ve discovered the joys of the next book: putting the main characters into new situations and seeing how they react. #writing