Contrast. First, you have to be an excellent writer. So that you can write beautiful, compelling and interesting descriptions and dialogue. Then you have to reserve that only for the magically enhanced. Imagine a world where some people are walking around talking like the most well-written play or movie you have ever seen, and everyone else is just …
On Death of the Author
I think that while you may delete the author from a work as far as his intentions, you can not delete the author’s circumstances. This is especially true in science fiction. All good science fiction are stories written about the time they were written in, set in another time as a metaphor. Look at two major works of …
On Wish Fulfillment in Fiction
I think people have a very… shallow understanding of wish fulfillment. See, being able to effortlessly win and never be challenged may be seen as wish fulfillment – and to some people it is – but to many it would not be. Human beings want to be challenged. Even if a human has all their needs …
What You Need to Write a Parody or Spoof Well
If you want to parody, explore, deconstruct or otherwise do some meta-level examination of a particular work of genre or theme from fiction then love it first. All of the best parodies are done by people who obviously deeply love what they are parodying. The level of dedication it takes to do it well simply doesn’t …
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On the Death of Raymond Montgomery
I know a lot of nerds and geeks worship at the temples of Gygax or Arneson, but for me, it was this man who was more important than any of them. I came into actual role-playing in my high school years. But for Choose Your Own Adventure books? Those things have been part of my …
Consistency of Realism in Fiction
I really don’t care how realistic your work is so long as you don’t suddenly try to have it both ways. Frex; Civil War in Marvel. You can have spandex-clad heroes having city-block-leveling fistfights in the middle of downtown Manhattan and I will cheer and whoop. I will never question how they could have these …
On Writing Fight Scenes, Part 2
That really depends on what your goal is. There are way too many ways to write a fight scene to boil it down to simple advice. Like any other scene, it’s all about pacing, word choice and scene goals. Some general advice to follow is that you can control the reader’s pace in a scene …
Avoiding Writing Your Characters into Corners
This is a problem with a lot of fanfiction, I find. Part of it’s the simple fact that people are worried about writing themselves into a corner by creating a situation they don’t know how to get out of. It’s hard to put characters in peril and I haven’t quite figured out how to do …
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On Conceptualising a Story
You know what I think the problem with this thread is? Too many people putting the cart before the horse. A lot of focus on creating a scenario, and not nearly enough on creating a purpose for that scenario. If I may make a suggestion: instead of focusing on the weird event, instead focus on …
On Writing Fight Scenes, Part 1
Remember that in writing, you have three whole extra senses to work with. Further, do not try to emulate a visual medium in a literary form. All mediums have their strengths and weaknesses, and you should construct your fight scenes to play to the strengths of your medium and not try to adapt one to …