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 Ain’t Miscuratin’ As far as word trends go, the word curate still exists in a somewhat rarified air. One can use curate knowingly with tongue in cheek: “Let’s curate our spice rack!” Or, more commonly and less nerdily, in the service of specialized artisanal commerce: “curating food stands” of the Brooklyn Flea swap meet, or a site that lets women curate their own clothing store from featured brands, earning 10% on any sales from their page. Curate used pejoratively indicates The Man- “If The Huffington Post wants to curate Twitter…” [uh, users will be upset]. And then there is that other definition specific to the practice of art curating. In the past ten years, as curate has exploded in popular culture and as a consumer buzz-word, art curators have felt residual effects. Everyone’s a critic but who’s a curator? To some extent taste has been wedded to curating since the latter’s inception. All of which begs the question: Is this just a power grab via linguistic shuffling of the privileged term?
religion in fantasy novels | helluo librorum Since no one burned my house down after the Tolkien post, I’m going out on a limb here and talk to you about using religion in your fantasy novels. Generally speaking, when building worlds in fantasy novels, the religions of your world will be a reflection of the religions here on good old planet earth. So I’m going to offer a few suggestions – take them or leave them: Know thy religion. Understand the core beliefs. Avoid stereotypes. Religions don’t kill. Treat all religions with respect. Don’t be malicious. World building is a difficult process; as a fantasy writer you are creating a whole social order, and you want it to be believable. A few articles to see: If you’re looking for a checklist of questions to ask when world building, go to the SFWA blog where Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions by Patricia C. Joe Wetzel at Inkwell Ideas has a great article with Worldbuilding: Fantasy Religion Design Guide, and a subsequent post, Worldbuilding: Fantasy Religion Design Example. Like this:
Ten rules for writing fiction Elmore Leonard: Using adverbs is a mortal sin 1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. 2 Avoid prologues: they can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. 3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. 4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" ... he admonished gravely. 5 Keep your exclamation points under control. 6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". 7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. 8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. 9 Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. 10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Diana Athill Margaret Atwood 3 Take something to write on.
Content curation in 13 minutes a day – Conversation Marketing Steady, smart content curation can grow your audience on lots of social media outlets. It’s list building, social media-style: You help folks find and filter other people’s good stuff. In exchange, they start paying more attention to your good stuff. Just the facts, folks: This is a step-by-step look at how I do my daily content curation. The setup I did all of these things once, to get my toolset in order: Get a Timely.is account.Install the Timely bookmarklet in my favorite browser.Sign up for HootsuiteSet up Hootsuite to use your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.Sign up for Bit.ly Pro. All done. 10 minutes, every morning Review my Google Reader list.If a headline looks interesting, I read the story.If I think my audience will find it useful, I open the story in a separate browser window. Click ‘Add to Queue’. Repeat this process until you’ve got 10 or so posts lined up for the day. Total time: 10 minutes, tops. Side benefit: You stay informed and might even learn something new.
Write It Sideways » Blog Archive » 5 Visual Strategies for Plotting Your Novel I don’t know about you, but for me, plotting a full-length novel is one of the most difficult aspects of writing. I tend to come up with a great premise, but turning that into a plot becomes a lot of work. I don’t usually get it right the first time, either. Personally, what works best for me during this outlining process is to have plenty of visual material on hand. If I can see the story taking shape, I can make all sorts of subconscious connections that wouldn’t otherwise surface. Here are 5 visual strategies I have used for outlining: 1. Pictures are a great way to visualize your plot, setting, and characters. You can keep either a digital file of pictures on your computer (taken yourself with a digital camera, or ones you find on the internet), or a real file with film pictures/magazine cutouts. Whichever you use, make sure you hold onto them for when you start actually writing. 2. 3. If you prefer more concrete methods of plotting to digital ones, try the good ol’ index card system.
5 situations where it's better to tell than show in your fiction @ceti: BAH! Curse you both! This is a ploy with my co-worker, who only mentioned that I need to take this book from my shelf, dust it off, and read it already. You're all my Jiminy Crickets...Resolution #1 decided. @ceti: (My posts don't show correctly at times, so I apologize if this is a double.) Curse you both for conspiring with my co-worker, who only yesterday mentioned that I needed to take this book from my shelf, dust it off, and read it. You are all my Jiminy Crickets...Resolution #1 decided. Thanks! @Craig Michael Ranapia: Good example. That was pretty captivating!
How To Find Content for Your Blog and Never Run Out of Topic Ideas by Lorie Huston, DVM on July 20, 2011 Finding good original content for your blog is essential to your blog's success. Blogging is an ongoing process and the more often you publish new content on your blog, the more successful your blog is likely to become. But where will that content come from? Keep a notebook with you at all times to jot down ideas that might occur to you during the course of the day. These are a few of the ideas that you can use to find content for your blog. Photo Courtesy of Search Engine People Blog/Flickr.com If you enjoyed this article, we encourage you to grab our RSS feed or subscribe by email to receive notifications when new content is added. Need help with your social media outreach? About Lorie Huston, DVM Lorie Huston is an accomplished veterinarian, an award winning blogger, a talented author and a certified veterinary journalist.
The Fantasy Fiction Formula "Rob Parnell is the World's Foremost Writing Guru" - Writers Digest Best Writers' Site - Critters #1 Best Writers' Info Site 2010 - 2011 Writers! Click here to get published free by Magellan Books. The Fantasy Fiction Formula Rob Parnell Now, most fantasy writers have been constructing their fictional world since childhood. I remember an interview with JK Rowling where she wandered her home town for the camera, recounting the points, places and people that influenced her Harry Potter world, right from when she was a kid. Similarly, JR Tolkein was an ardent lifelong scholar of "Middle Earth" languages way before he set pen to paper. But if you're new to the genre, where do you begin? Many professional fantasy writers will joke about 'the formula' for good fantasy because it does exist and good fantasy authors still use it - not because they're lazy but because the fans want it - in fact insist on it! It has been condensed thus: 'Hero, artifact, quest'. Get a very large sheet of paper.
How Not to Be a Clever Writer I think you're somewhat misunderstanding what I'm saying here. I'm not saying "No risk or experimentation." I'm saying those things are tools — use them to tell the story you want to tell, don't just use them because you want to use them. My interpretation of the article is that it's a sort of 'How not to be JJ Abrams'. As much as I love the majority of what I've seen of his stuff, he does seem to try too hard to be clever a LOT of the time. I love the complex plotting of Lost, but it gets convoluted and drops a lot of interesting ideas at times, and the bracelet thing at the end of Super 8 was cringeworthingly heavy-handed. Sometimes with this kind of cleverness, it's best to accept you don't know how to make it work in this scenario. And I think you're misunderstanding me a little. :) No, you're not saying it, but your piece does suggest particular directions over others.
10 Steps to Finding Your Writing Voice Bonus: Need help finding your writing voice? Click here for free tips. I write only because / There is a voice within me / That will not be still. Awhile ago, I wrote an article called, “Finding Your Blog’s Unique Voice.” Photo credit: Dan Foy (Creative Commons) But here, I want to share a little bit more about how to find your overall writing voice. Spending some time deliberating over voice is worth your attention and focus. If you struggle with getting people to read your writing or with staying consistent in your craft, you need to stop chasing numbers and productivity and reboot. An exercise for finding your voice Not sure where to start? Describe yourself in three adjectives. Why do you need a writing voice? Finding your voice is the key to getting dedicated followers and fans and that it’s the only sustainable way to write. Once you’ve found your voice, make sure you continue to develop it. The bottom line is that there’s a lot of noise out there in the world.