A while back, I did a post noting the podcast Writing Excuses, an awesome resource for aspiring science fiction or fantasy writers. This weekend, I discovered another podcast that I had inexplicably missed until now.
The Odyssey Podcasts are excerpts from their writing workshops, an exclusive and intense writing work camp for select beginning SFF writers. I’ve already been through a number of the episodes and have picked up a lot of great tips. If you do podcasts, they’re well worth checking out.
I also noticed the Writing Tips section of their site, which has a lot of good, succinct material in it. I read the sentence unity part with great interest. I have a tendency to write long, sometimes tangled sentences. Seeing the problem named and described, with tips on how to fix it, is invaluable.
They also offer an interesting service. For $300, they’ll critique up to 20,000 words of your writing. (They’ll do more if you’re willing to pay for it.) Of course, many aspiring writers already have beta readers and writing group critiques. Some even have access to English teachers and other writing instructors for feedback. But this would be feedback from publishing writers, which isn’t easy to get.
SelfAwarePatterns 
I love long sentences, provided they are well-constructed. I find that if punctuation is used effectively, then extending sentences can create a wonderful rhythm – one thinks of Ian McEwan perhaps.
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I totally agree. I just don’t always succeed at the well constructed part. Or realize that I haven’t succeeded when proofreading. Which I’m sure my regular readers are all too familiar with 🙂
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I’ve never found your sentences to be too long or in any way tangled. Still, I’m glad you’re finding the writing tips helpful.
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Thanks James. Most of them get caught in proofreading. (When I have time to do it, which with blog posts, isn’t always.) But occasionally I look at something I posted months ago and just squirm.
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Thanks for the recommendation. I love Writing Excuses so I took a peek, and they look really good!
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Thanks Lane. Glad you’re finding it useful.
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