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The meanings and origins of sayings and phrases. 5 Ways to Build a Detailed World Without Boring Your Readers. Photo by InterdimensionalGuardians.

5 Ways to Build a Detailed World Without Boring Your Readers

Interesting. It’s the year 2053. Earth has made first contact with an extraterrestrial race; socialist aliens who reproduce asexually. You, now a literary giant, are tasked with adapting a sample of Earth literature for the aliens to enjoy. The book is Pride and Prejudice. You open your well-worn copy to that famous first sentence, It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a large fortune must be in want of a wife…and you break down in tears, realizing this tale of class and marriage will mean absolutely nothing to your audience. Universal truth, your foot! Yet this is the challenge science fiction and fantasy writers face every day. We create whole new worlds to house our stories, then find ourselves struggling to keep up the pace while stopping the action every few paragraphs for a history lesson. But we don’t have to! Like so: 1. …and the jobs of the people he knows say a lot about your world. 2.

How was he raised? Periodic Table of Storytelling. 75+ Paid Writing Opportunities. Funny-chart-synonyms-words-fear-anger.jpg (JPEG Image, 426 × 487 pixels) 45 ways to avoid using the word 'very'. Writers Write is your one-stop resource for writers.

45 ways to avoid using the word 'very'

Use these 45 ways to avoid using the word ‘very’ to improve your writing. Good writers avoid peppering their writing with qualifiers like ‘very’ and ‘really’. They are known as padding or filler words and generally add little to your writing. According to Collins Dictionary: ‘Padding is unnecessary words or information used to make a piece of writing or a speech longer. Synonyms include: waffle, hot air, verbiage, wordiness.’ How to Find Unique Names for Your Characters (with Examples) Steps Method 1 of 2: Finding Your Own Unique Names 1Use a first name as a last name.

How to Find Unique Names for Your Characters (with Examples)

Since first and last names usually sound very different, breaking this tradition would make your character stand ever so slightly apart. (Ex. Anna Joey, Robert Gideon.) 10 Free, Open Source Tools for Fiction Writers - Kristle ChesterKristle Chester. Software doesn’t make the writer. Shakespeare did his best work with a quill. Yes, folks, he wrote Macbeth with a feather. Good writing software can organize your research, check your spelling, and help format your submissions. Everything else is still on you. It can also drive you batty, have high learning curves, lock you into a file format you can’t open on any computer without X application installed, and/or save your precious novel in a binary file format. Writing LyX : With a full screen view, minimum formatting, export to rtf, LaTeX, and pdf, it rocks for chapter books. TextRoom Example LibreOffice : A fork of OpenOffice, LibreOffice includes many performance upgrades that never made it into OpenOffice, mostly for political reasons.

Organizing Novel Mind Map (Use Freemind or Freeplane ): If you’re a visual learner, you’ll love this. Zim Novel Notebook Example Formatting. CALLIHOO Writing Helps. Character Feelings You can describe your character's feelings in more exact terms than just "happy" or "sad.

CALLIHOO Writing Helps

" Check these lists for the exact nuance to describe your character's intensity of feelings. SF Characters | SF Items | SF Descriptors | SF Places | SF EventsSF Jobs/Occupations | Random Emotions | Emotions List | Intensity of Feelings. Anatomy of the Sword. Anatomy of the Sword Sections of a Viking Age Sword Sections of a Longsword with Scabbard.

Anatomy of the Sword

Mythology, folklore, and religion. Mythical Creatures List, Mythical Creatures A-Z. 8 Writing Techniques to Win You a Pulitzer. Today’s guest post is from writer Joe Bunting, who blogs at The Write Practice.

8 Writing Techniques to Win You a Pulitzer

We all know there are novels and then there are “literary” novels. When you read Margaret Atwood, it just feels different than when you read Tom Clancy. And for some reason, these literary novels are the ones that win all the most prestigious awards like the Pulitzer Prize, the Man Booker Prize, and the Nobel Prize for Literature. Literary authors are known for their unique voices and experimental styles. You might have learned not to write run-on sentences in school or to avoid beginning a sentence with “and,” but literary writers often seem to flaunt their rule-breaking ways. This is both good and bad. So if you’re salivating to win a Nobel Prize, and just don’t think your diplomacy skills are good enough to win the Peace Prize, here are eight techniques you can use to make your writing more “literary.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Writing long sentences can get old. One thing. Try reading it aloud. Medieval Names Archive. This collection of articles on medieval and Renaissance names is intended to help historical re-creators to choose authentic names.

Medieval Names Archive

These articles were gathered from various places, and some of them appear elsewhere. In all cases, the copyright on each article belongs to its authors. For frequent users, we offer a compact index; but please read the following introduction at least once. What's New. Myth, Legend, Folklore, Ghosts. Apollo and the Greek Muses Updated July 2010 COMPREHENSIVE SITES ON MYTHOLOGY ***** The Encyclopedia Mythica - SEARCH - Areas - Image Gallery - Genealogy tables - Mythic Heroes Probert Encyclopaedia - Mythology Gods, Heroes, and MythDictionary of Mythology What is Myth?

Myth, Legend, Folklore, Ghosts

MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHOLOGYThe Assyro-Babylonian Mythology FAQ Sumerian Mythology FAQ Sumerian Mythology Sumerian Gods and Goddesses Sumerian Myths SUMERIAN RELIGION Mythology's Mythinglinks: the Tigris-Euphrates Region of the Ancient Near East Gods, Goddesses, Demons and Monsters of Mesopotamia The Assyro-Babylonian Mythology FAQ More info on Ancient Mesopotamia can be found on my Ancient River Valley Civilizations page. GREEK MYTHOLOGYOrigins of Greek MythologyGreek Mythology - MythWeb Greek-Gods.info (plus a fun QUIZ)Ancient Greek Religion Family Tree of Greek Mythology Greek Names vs. Monstropedia. Self Publish a Book - Lulu.com.