Summary versus Scene. What are they? When do you choose one over the other?* Summary is where you take what happened in a relatively long period of time and convey it in a short space. It compresses time and detail, … Continue reading →
(Note: some of the following has been adapted from Rayne Hall’s blog.) I can’t remember what show I was watching or which book I was reading, but one character needed to tell another what had happened. She says, “I don’t … Continue reading →
Fantasy literature transports you from the mundane world into the strange and the magical. How does it do this? By making that world believable, in its setting, its use of magic, and in its characters. To transport you, the fantasy world must be … Continue reading →
The Sincerest Form of Flattery, a guest post by Devorah Fox “Fan fiction” is a term that describes stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work rather than by the original creator. Fan fiction is rarely … Continue reading →
I was asked whether I had any “side stories” about the characters is The Goddess’s Choice. A better question would be, did my characters have any stories about themselves that they insisted I write? As every novelist knows, a well … Continue reading →
Sanderson’s First Law of Magics: An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic. Magic is at the heart of fantasy, so it’s important for an author to get the magic right. You may … Continue reading →
This week Cinthia Ritchie, author of Dolls Behaving Badly, gives us some hints on writing dialogue. Come back tomorrow for an excerpt from her work. Back in graduate school, the worst insult a writer could inflict on another was that … Continue reading →
It can be hard to be, but everyone has to die sometime. Killing Your Darlings by Yves Fey Killing your darlings is a phrase you see used to recommend you kill off your favorite bits of prose. The idea is … Continue reading →
This week my guest is R.J. Leahy, author of the hilariously funny mystery, Fat Chance. He writes on how to write comedy. I’d listen to him because his book proves he knows how what he’s talking about. “Dying is easy. … Continue reading →
One thing readers of fantasy look for is a journey to a magical world that is unlike the mundane world we all inhabit, so building that world is one of the most important tasks of a fantasy writer and also … Continue reading →