The Writers Helpers. L'enfer, c'est les autres. YEAH WRITE! Don’t Write What You Know - Bret Anthony Johnston. Why fiction’s narrative and emotional integrity will always transcend the literal truth Every Wednesday, I teach an introductory fiction workshop at Harvard University, and on the first day of class I pass out a bullet-pointed list of things the students should try hard to avoid. Don’t start a story with an alarm clock going off. Don’t end a story with the whole shebang having been a suicide note. Don’t use flashy dialogue tags like intoned or queried or, God forbid, ejaculated. Twelve unbearably gifted students are sitting around the table, and they appreciate having such perimeters established. The idea panics them for two reasons. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should admit I’ve been accused of writing what I know on a good many occasions.
The facts are these: I was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, the part of the country where most every word of fiction I’ve published takes place. I don’t know the origin of the “write what you know” logic. Stories aren’t about things. The Writing Café. Idolmeta: Writing and Fandom Resources List. So here we go...the giant list of writing and fandom meta. This list is not comprehensive. It's intended for people who are looking for meta on a specific topic (point of view, formatting fic, etc.).
It's collected from many sources (given at the end), my own links, and some delicious and Google searches. I included things I thought were relevant to AI fandom and which were, in my opinion, correct, plus a couple of rebuttals if I thought another perspective was useful. The links are organized by topic. Please also let me know about typos, broken links, or other goofs. Ai_beta. Notes: Lowercase author names are LJ usernames and the article is on LiveJournal. Table of Contents: Writing and Fandom Meta. Words of inspiration to first-time writers… …from the GITS community. We ran a contest yesterday tied to an upcoming Writers Guild Foundation event, asking people to do this: Write words of encouragement to someone you don’t know about to embark on writing their first complete screenplay.
No more than 100 words. I was so impressed by the responses, I am including all of them here in the order they were posted: We spend our lives searching within ourselves for something majestic, something big enough for people to take notice. If only for a moment. Utterly wonderful sentiments here. Thanks to everyone for your comments. Onward and upward! The significance of plot without conflict - still eating oranges. 25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is one of those topics that bakes my noodle every time my brain chooses to dwell on it. I have a whole bucket full of opinions, many of them in stark disagreement with one another. So, this list below should never at any time be taken as “25 Exhaustive Universal Truths About Worldbuilding,” but rather be regarded as, “25 Things Chuck Wendig Thinks About Worldbuilding At This Exact Moment In Time, Oh, Wait, Some Of Them Just Changed.”
Kay? Kay. Let’s chat. 1. We’re talking about the revelation of your storyworld and its details through the story itself. 2. My opinion: you build a world to serve the story or stories you want to tell; you do not tell a story that is slave to the worldbuilding. 3. If you prioritize worldbuilding, you’re probably going to end up with like, seven different versions of the D&D Monster Manual but no actual novel. 4. But then again, that’s not to say you’ll find zero value in writing a storyworld bible for the tale at hand. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 9 Tips for Giving Better Editorial Feedback. Straight Phan Fiction. Boxlunch, you wanna boxlunch? The Writing Café. Prompts and Pointers. Prompts and Pointers: choosing tenses. The Writing Café. Confessions of an Opinionated Book Geek - Writing Tips #116: Seven Types of Narrative Conflict. 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. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. 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.
Diana Athill Margaret Atwood 1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. So You Want To Write A Book.. 102 Resources for Fiction Writers. The 5 Essential Story Ingredients. Ultimate Writing Resource List. Blog Post: Exclusive: J.K. Rowling on How She Crafts Gritty, Realistic Characters. Blue Ruiner: You know how everyone has their little pet peeves... 107 Ironclad Rules for Writers Who Want to Be Better at Writing : Tom McAllister. Metabib: META POST LINKS LIST [UPDATED 12-28-05] Masterlist of writing tips for writers.