JC Bybee

Okay this week’s post is about the writing routine.   I’m going to cover questions like:   How important is the routine?   What is my routine?   Should I have a routine?   And possibly others. First off how important is a writing routine?   Some writers I’ve met/read about couldn’t write unless they were in specific situations; like sitting at home in a completely silent office, or in a local coffee shop with a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate.   I was sort of like that at the beginning.   Now that I’m a stay at home dad I find I can write whenever I can.   Usually that’s when my son is asleep, or at least not hungry.    That isn’t to say that there aren’t things I do or don’t do when I write.   I pretty much always have music playing while I write (even when I’m writing these posts).   What I listen to changes according the scene, the book, my own mood, and so forth.   However I would like to point out th...

Okay so after a little bit of a hiatus while I learned to be a stay at home dad I have finally got back to this.   This week’s post (and hopefully I can get back on a weekly schedule for this) is about cursing in writing.   And I don’t mean whether or not there should be cursing in books.   What I’m addressing today is the lack of originality on the part of some authors when it comes to oaths/curses primarily in fantasy, but also to a lesser extent in science fiction. First off why do we curse?   What’s the point of swearing?   There are a number of reasons.   Usually the most basic is because of some strong emotion.   Anger, fear, hatred, jealousy, happiness (yes people swear when they are happy), sadness, all emotions can cause people to let loose a swear word or two, (or ten in the case of some people…).   So now that we’ve established a basic reason for curse words, now it’s time to consider where they come from.   From my observ...