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10 Writing "Rules" We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break

10 Writing "Rules" We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break
Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service. I give a hearty Here Here for #4! There is nothing wrong with telling a story that fits within the covers of a single book. Honestly, I respect a well crafted short story more than a shelf load of volumes that purports to tell a single story. Remember, the whole Trilogy+ got started when the publisher got fed up with the fact Tolkien wouldn't finish. The moment I see something like "Book One of the (insert name of place or magic item and latin number)ogy", I want to put the book down. Flagged

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10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing Dear Teenage Writers: Hi there. I was once a teenage writer like you (see goofy picture to the right), although that was so long ago that between now and then, I could have been a teenager all over again. Thought disorder In psychiatry, thought disorder (TD) or formal thought disorder (FTD) refers to disorganized thinking as evidenced by disorganized speech.[1] Specific thought disorders include derailment, poverty of speech, tangentiality, illogicality, perseveration, neologism, and thought blocking.[1] Psychiatrists consider formal thought disorder as being one of two types of disordered thinking, with the other type being delusions. The latter involves "content" while the former involves "form". Although the term "thought disorder" can refer to either type, in common parlance it refers most often to a disorder of thought "form" also known as formal thought disorder.[citation needed] Eugen Bleuler, who named schizophrenia, held that thought disorder was its defining characteristic.[2] However, formal thought disorder is not unique to schizophrenia or psychosis.

15 Mind-Blowing Images by NASA The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the United States’ largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe. They are also home to some of the most amazing images, visualizations and videos NASA has to offer! Please do yourself a favour and check out their incredible Flickr page which has thousands of images with wonderfully detailed descriptions. How Much of My World Do I Build? First, let me say that worldbuilding is an essential skill for every writer, regardless of genre. Not all writers need to concentrate on all areas of worldbuilding, but every writer must do some worldbuilding if he hopes to have a novel that is coherent, consistent, and real. Second, writers seem to come in three varieties — those who really have no idea what worldbuilding is or why they should bother with it; those who do know, but figure they’ll wing the details as they go; and those obsessive folks who secretly believe that they really can’t start the book until the whole planet is in place. I’ve spent time in all three camps — most of my time in the last one. The system works. It can work for you.

Carpe diem Translation[edit] Carpe is the second-person singular present active imperative of carpō, "pick or pluck," used by Ovid to mean "enjoy, seize, use, make use of".[1] Diem is the accusative case of the noun "dies", that means "day". A more literal translation of "Carpe diem" would thus be "enjoy the day" or "pluck the day [as it is ripe]"—i.e. to enjoy the moment; however, in its modern-day usage, the "diem" usually gets abstracted as "opportunity." History[edit] Understanding Knowledge as a Commons Knowledge in digital form offers unprecedented access to information through the Internet but at the same time is subject to ever-greater restrictions through intellectual property legislation, overpatenting, licensing, overpricing, and lack of preservation. Looking at knowledge as a commons—as a shared resource—allows us to understand both its limitless possibilities and what threatens it. In Understanding Knowledge as a Commons, experts from a range of disciplines discuss the knowledge commons in the digital era—how to conceptualize it, protect it, and build it. Contributors consider the concept of the commons historically and offer an analytical framework for understanding knowledge as a shared social-ecological system. They look at ways to guard against enclosure of the knowledge commons, considering, among other topics, the role of research libraries, the advantages of making scholarly material available outside the academy, and the problem of disappearing Web pages.

Creating a Realistic Fantasy World by Penny Ehrenkranz Did you ever wonder how David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, Stephen King, Piers Anthony, or J. R. R. Tolkien created their worlds? These and other successful fantasy writers found the magic to create realistic fantasy worlds, but they didn't find it in a book of spells. Aphorism An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic (concise) and memorable form.[1] Aphorism literally means a "distinction" or "definition". The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. The oft-cited first sentence of this work (see Ars longa, vita brevis) is: Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult. The term was later applied to maxims of physical science, then statements of all kinds of philosophical, moral, or literary principles.

The secret foundation that contains the world’s paranormal artifacts By Gavia Baker-Whitelaw on October 26th, 2014 Part wiki, part role-playing game, part storytelling community, the SCP Foundation has spent the past six years lurking in one of the darkest corners of the Internet. Caught in the sweet spot between “cool enough to keep attracting new members” and “obscure enough that no one is likely to Kickstart a documentary about it and ruin everything,” the SCP Foundation is a phenomenon that combines creepypasta—the Internet’s version of campfire horror stories—with the obsessive culture of Wikipedia editing. SCP stands for either Secure, Contain, and Protect (the main aims of the Foundation) or Special Containment Procedure.

World Building 101 World Building 101 by Lee Masterson You are the ultimate creator of your fictional world. No matter where or when your story is set, regardless of what events unfold, and despite the characters you introduce to your readers, they are all products of your unique imagination. "But I write romance set in the present time," I hear you cry. 13 Passages from Children's Literature that are More Dreadful and Shocking Than They May First Appear From time to time people say to me, "Lemony Snicket, you write dreadful and shocking books. What sort of writing do you find dreadful and shocking yourself?" My reply to them is always the same: "Please be quiet, I'm trying to read." Nevertheless, I occasionally stumble upon a dreadful and/or shocking passage of children's literature that may have passed unnoticed by other readers with less investigative or hysterical temperaments. I am grateful to the Huffington Post for allowing me to point out these disturbing passages so that the general public can be as flushed and sputtering as I am. 1.

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