Writing morally grey characters readers will love. @coinsanddeadlypoisons asked: Do you have any tips about writing from the point of view of a manipulative character? I don’t want him to be an asshole but i am afraid the readers would see him as such. The large majority of the characters in The Warlord’s Contract are morally grey in […]
Read More Morally Grey But Still Likable?By Delilah S. Dawson This is like that Couch to 5k thing people do to gear up for a marathon. Except you can do it without leaving your couch. And for me, a book is a better souvenir than a popped-off toenail. What follows is the quickest, dirtiest, most simple route to writing a novel […]
Read More 25 Steps to Being a Traditionally Published AuthorBy Ruth Harris We all come face to face with them, those pesky glitches, oopsies, OMGs and WTFs that ruin a story, turn a reader off, guarantee a slew of one-star reviews—and kill sales. Beta readers will often point them out. Editors are professional fixers, always on the lookout for booboos. You will realize them […]
Read More Plot Holes & Pot HolesBy Karen Hertzberg Just like food, your writing needs spice. Keep these tips in your cupboard to take your writing from bland to scrumptious. About a year ago, I got interested in cooking. For most of my adult life, I’d been making things like spaghetti with sauce from a jar, macaroni and cheese complete with […]
Read More 9 Easy Tips That Will Improve Bland WritingBy Shaun David Hutchinson I tell stories because the real world sucked for me when I was a teen. No. Sucked doesn’t even begin to cover it. The real world nearly killed me. The real world told me that I was going to hell because I was gay. It told me I would die of […]
Read More Representation MattersA series of posts about firearms by William R. Bartlett: A Writer’s Guide to Firearms: Assault Rifles Mar 13, 2018 | My friends’ Guest Posts, Writing This is a guest post by my author friend, William R. Bartlett. It continues his discussion of all things firearms. Assault rifles have featured prominently in the horrific events in Florida, Las […]
Read More A Writer’s Guide to FirearmsWhen it comes to crossing the vast gulfs between the solar system and other stellar systems, SF writers turn to two main solutions: small and fast1 or big and slow. Perhaps the best known example of “big and slow” is the generation ship, large enough to qualify as a large town or even a small nation, […]
Read More Generation ShipsBy Mod Colette We discussed the issues describing People of Color by means of food in Part I of this guide, which brought rise to even more questions, mostly along the lines of “So, if food’s not an option, what canI use?” Well, I was just getting to that! This final portion focuses on describing skin tone, with […]
Read More Writing with Colour: Description Guide for Skin Tones
