Originally posted on Graffiti on the Walls of Time:
I’ve been wanting to write, honestly I have. It’s just that I’ve been too busy writing. As you know, The Killing Scar is drafted, but that was only the beginning of the work. First I had to edit it, which means I had to re-read it,…
By Kelly Robson I’ll always be grateful to Steven Barnes. At Orycon 2012, he passed on advice that made a huge difference to my writing. Steven said, when we get a story idea, we usually know either the character or the problem. To develop the story, we can ask ourselves the following questions: If we […]
Read More 2 Simple, Awesome Pieces of Characterization AdviceBy Shane Snow The other day, a friend and I were talking about becoming better writers by doing a “reading level analysis” of our work. Scholars have formulas for automatically estimating reading level using syllables, sentence length, and other proxies for vocabulary and concept complexity. After the chat, just for fun, I ran a chapter from […]
Read More Reading Level Analysis Will Change the Way You WriteHappy New Year everyone! I figured this was a good time to lay out my writing plans for the year for the benefit of friends & fans. To start with, some bad news: I have decided that for 2018, I will not be producing new installments in the Wyrd West Chronicles. My reasons for this […]
Read More My Writing Plans for 2018No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book is an excellent guide for anyone who does National Novel Writing Month and anyone who ever wanted to write a book but had no idea […]
Read More Book Review: No Plot, No Problem by Chris Baty (Revised/Expanded)By Randy Ellefson Depending on your ability, creating names for people, places, and beings in fantasy books can either be fun or a pain. I’ve been doing this for three decades and will provide some tricks and thoughts to help. KISS KISS doesn’t really stand for “keep it simple, stupid”, but it’s a good principle […]
Read More Creating Fantasy NamesBy Mandy Wallace So I’m working on this short story I started for some Glimmer Train contest or other. But it grew like a weed all unwieldy, and now it’s burst through its word count limit and its deadline. And I wish that was this story’s biggest problem. Its biggest problem is that I’m still struggling to balance ye old show versus […]
Read More Show Don’t TellBy Angeline Trevena I met Angeline recently online as part of a group of dystopian writers. Her series, The Paper Duchess, just saw its last book published last month. I really identify with this article. My first NaNo project was the start of the Toy Soldier Saga, and I’m currently revising it at request of […]
Read More Your NaNo Loss Could be a Long-Term WinFleshing out characters with believable human qualities is an art. Indirect characterization is writing that paints in character detail by showing rather than telling. Rather than only tell readers about characters’ personalities and values, you can reveal them subtly through dialogue, actions and appearances. Read these tips and examples from books: Read the full article at NowNovel.com.
Read More Indirect CharacterizationBy Alter S. Reiss “Getting the archaeology right” doesn’t actually matter that much when it comes to fantasy. The fact is, when it comes to secondary worlds, a lot of the absolutely basic assumptions don’t make any sense. Why are there people in this world, whose history—whose natural history—is so different from ours? If dragons […]
Read More Putting Archaeology to Work in Fantasy Fiction
