Romance Tropes for SFF Writers
by Jeffe Kennedy
Mystery readers expect to find out who done it. Suspense readers expect the big bad to be stopped. Romance readers want the romance to end with promise.
Archive for the ‘Writing Technique’ Category
Writing and Music Composition
by Yoon Ha Lee
I used to say that I learned most of what I knew about writing from Jon Gindick’s “Country and Blues Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless.” While not quite true, I do find it useful to apply principles from music and musical composition to writing fiction.
When to Trunk a Story or Novel?
by Tobias S. Buckell
Today, while waiting for my new office chair to be delivered, I asked followers at Twitter to send me some questions. In response, someone tweeted: “When to trunk and when to keep rewriting?”
Panlexicon vs. Visual Thesaurus – Who Will Win?
by Luna Lindsey
Panlexicon vs. Visual Thesaurus: No, it’s not an epic city-smashing battle of giant robots versus dinosaurs. It’s a contest between online thesauri. When you need that perfect word, where should you turn?
Humor as a Plot Adhesive
As fiction writers, we talk a lot about humor. We talk about what’s funny. We talk about what isn’t. We talk about appropriate moments for humor, the types of audience best suited to it, and the consequences of attempted humor gone horribly wrong.
Painting Characters into Corners
by Nancy Fulda
If you write stories, this has probably happened to you:
The words are flowing. The plot is exciting. Your characters, faced with overwhelming odds, find themselves in the midst of a difficult and absolutely enthralling situation. It’s the Big, Dramatic Moment of your story – and you have no idea what happens next. The bad guys are too strong, the social pressures are too powerful, the pit is too deep, or your character is too broken. Try as you might, you can’t think of a single way to get your protagonist out of the current crisis.
Creating Aliens
by Deborah Walker
I’ve written a fair few aliens since reading it, always thinking about that advice, but with an added aspect: stealing blatantly from Mother Nature.
Speaking With Authority About Things That (Probably) Do Not Exist
by Jeremiah Tolbert
I once sat beside a campfire in Washington and listened to a man with a pistol strapped to his waist lecture for an hour about the ecology and habits of the Sasquatch. Meanwhile, my companions–a college professor and two high school teachers–had taken up buckets in a circle around our camp and were drumming to attract the great skunk ape into our midst.
Building Strength out of Weakness
by Nancy Fulda
My oldest sister is very wise. Once, long ago, when I was struggling to master a difficult situation, she sent me a letter about strength and weakness. The gist of the content was this: Many strengths are the flip side of weakness.
Variations of Villainy
by Nancy Fulda
Villains are challenging to write. Make them too heartless, and no one will find them believable. Make them too empathetic, and the audience will end up rooting for the wrong team. It can be difficult to create an antagonist with enough human virtue to be interesting and enough human foibles to be, well, villainous.
