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Writing Tips: Proofreading. Start Your Novel Already! Reflection of the Mind : So I’ve seen a great number of people who aren’t... I Love You, My Little Cabbage: Using Foreign Words... The Ginger Helper. The Writers Helpers. Prompts and Pointers. Genre Help: Children's Literature - RP and Writing. When (and How) To Break the Rules. By Anne Marble.

When (and How) To Break the Rules

21 Unreliable Narrators Who May Or May Not Be Lying To You. Writing Questions Answered. Dramatic Action Is More Than Doing Stuff. By Chuck Palahniuk  8 Words You Should Avoid When... Basic Tips To Write Subcultures & Minority Religions Better. I could have just as easily titled this one "The Article That Every Writer Of CSI/Bones/Etc.

Basic Tips To Write Subcultures & Minority Religions Better

Really Needs To Sit Down And Read," because every time writers of shows like that aim to explore some subculture, minority religion, movement, or any such similar thing, they get it hideously and/or hilariously wrong. So, here are a few tips and pointers to help you from making the same mistakes. Basic Tips To Avoid Tokenism. Why "It's Just Fiction!" Isn't A Magic Defense. Many times, people use "it's just fiction!

Why "It's Just Fiction!" Isn't A Magic Defense

" as if it's a trump card to play against any and all criticisms against something considered offensive or harmful. But the evidence shows that works can and do impact the real world, and sometimes in very harmful ways. Typically, problems come in when the following factors are present: The subject matter is something that exists in the real world, or is something that people believe is actually going on.Most of its audiences won't be familiar enough with the reality or educated enough understand that what they are seeing is not accurate. Let's take a look at three examples of how this kind of thing has affected public perception and has gotten people hurt: 101 Dalmations (1996): After the live action 101 Dalmations film came out in 1996, a sudden craze of dalmatian adoption followed.

Annoying Things In Internet Fiction - Part 2. A list of more annoying things in Internet fiction gathered circa June of 2014.

Annoying Things In Internet Fiction - Part 2

Characters with opinions imposed by their creators. These are characters who have opinions about people and things (but usually people) that don’t come from any actual in-story experiences or opinion osmosis that would justify those opinions, but rather from the author’s own perceptions and prejudices. This happens quite frequently in fanfiction, though it can occur in original fiction as well. For example, canon supervillain Breakfire had a difficult childhood that contributed to his villainous behavior in adulthood that ended up with thousands of people dying. Maggie decides that Breakfire’s behavior must have stemmed from being mistreated and that all he needs is some love and affection to make him all better.

Annoying Things In Internet Fiction. This is a list of some (but by no means all, alas) of the annoying things I've observed in my perusal of fiction on the Internet circa May of 2014.

Annoying Things In Internet Fiction

Gratuitous dead relatives for main characters. Family members who are killed at the beginning of the story for no real reason other than to give the main character something to angst over and/or leave xir free of familial responsibility so xe can start hobnobbing with the cool characters, but have no real bearing on the plot otherwise.

One story had a girl whose entire family died at the beginning. Writing Better Stories With Morals & Messages. Fiction is a great way to convey a moral message to people and spread a message.

Writing Better Stories With Morals & Messages

Unfortunately, if it's done wrong the message can fall flat or even backfire. So, here are some things to consider when writing them to make the morals of your stories work. Understand the other side and its complexities. A fault in many works that attempt to convey a message is that the issues the they attempt to address are polarized. Those who aren’t on the side the author is taking are treated and/or characterized as utter monsters or reprobates. A Few Things You Really Need To Know As An Anxious Writer And/Or Artist. I see a lot of people fall into a very toxic trap - they spend so long polishing and refining their work that it never, ever gets published or put up anywhere.

A Few Things You Really Need To Know As An Anxious Writer And/Or Artist

Rather than put it out there for a test run like they should be doing, they're asking other people whether it's good enough or not. If this is you, then here are a few things you need to start keeping in mind. No matter what, some people aren't going to like it. First, every work ever has at least some people who don't like it. Even the most popular works out there have a certain group of people who think it's an overrated piece of garbage. This rule rings especially true if your product is aimed at a relatively small demographic. Tips To Write Better & More Believable Cover Ups. Cover ups appear in a variety of genres, but one thing many of them have in common is that they're often laughably implausible.

Tips To Write Better & More Believable Cover Ups

So, here's a look into how cover ups actually work and how they don't work, and how you can avoid some of the common pitfalls associated with cover ups in fiction. Ask yourself: Is it the kind of thing that anyone would actually would cover up? Works that depict cover ups, particularly in sci-fi and urban fantasy, often portray the government or some other shadowy agency as being ready to cover up and hide anything that doesn't mesh with our current understanding of reality or that might ruffle a few peoples' feathers. But is this the way it really works? Certain Bigfoot proponents believe that the government is covering up the creature's existence for various reasons - one of which is that if the existence of a man-ape creature were made public, it would shake the foundations of Western religious belief and possibly result in panic and chaos.

Why You Shouldn't Worry Too Much About Putting Symbolism & Meanings Into Your Fiction. Symbolism is arbitrary and varies from culture to culture - and even within culture.

Why You Shouldn't Worry Too Much About Putting Symbolism & Meanings Into Your Fiction

Let's take color symbolism, for example. Specifically, the color purple In the US and Europe, purple is often associated with royalty and magic - but in Brazil, it's associated with death and mourning. This page explores the various meanings of colors throughout different cultures - which variate wildly. Borrowing & Sharing Ideas In Fiction - When It's Okay, & When It Isn't.

Back when Eragon came out, many critics of the book complained that it was essentially a ripoff of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings with a dash of Dragonriders of Pern.

Borrowing & Sharing Ideas In Fiction - When It's Okay, & When It Isn't

Many fans countered that everything is derivative of something, so it shouldn’t matter. Meanwhile, you have people who fuss and fret over whether their stories, worlds, or characters are original enough. Telling Story Canon From Personal Bias, Erroneous Memories, & Fanwank. Trying to sort out what's canon and what isn't can be tricky work sometimes. Even when we think we know what really happened in a story, our own minds may have fooled us somehow, leading us to firmly believe things about the work or its characters that just ain't so. While we will never be entirely free from making these errors, we can reduce the odds that we won't commit them as often by being aware of them and taking reasonable precautions against them. How we can fool ourselves into believing things that aren't so.

These are four very common ways our subconscious minds fool us into believing things that aren't necessarily true: Fabricated & conflated memories: Whenever there are gaps in our knowledge, our subconscious minds will try to fill in the blanks with whatever seems to make sense and patch the holes together in whatever way seems the most coherent.

How we can avoid fooling ourselves. Never be too sure of what happened in something until you've seen it at least three times. Write What You Know, But What If You Don’t Know Enough? It’s the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens this year, and while much has been written about his life and work, we can still learn a lot from his methods. His depiction of a supposedly-fictional London was so realistic – he clearly drew a lot from how people lived in worked in Victorian society. Write Like Stephen King: 10 Ways to Write 2,000 Words a Day. 20 Obsolete English Words that Should Make a Comeback. Photo: Katherine Hodgson If we all start using them, these words can be resurrected. DURING MY UNDERGRADUATE studies as a Linguistics major, one of the things that struck me most is the amazing fluidity of language.

New words are created; older words go out of style. Words can change meaning over time, vowel sounds shift, consonants are lost or added and one word becomes another. The Depressed Writer: An Interview with Julie Fast, Author of Get It Done When You’re Depressed. I’m on vacation this week, so I’m running an oldie-but-goodie that seemed to resonate with a lot of writers. Enjoy! Julie Fast is the author of several books and e-books, including the traditionally-published book Get It Done When You’re Depressed. Julie has bipolar disorder and uses the techniques in her book to be one of the most productive and creative writers I’ve ever met. The 90 Top Secrets of Bestselling Authors. Writing advice: It can be all at once inspiring and contradictory, uplifting and off-putting, insightful and superficial.

There are successful writers who impart wisdom freely and willingly, and then there are literary icons who claim to have none to dispense at all. Stephen King’s Top 7 Tips for Becoming a Better Writer. Seven Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School. Say What You Mean. Satisfying Story Endings. Below are some tips on writing effective story endings. R.A. Salvatore on How to Write a Damn Good Fight Scene. Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling « Aerogramme Writers' Studio. These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar’s Story Artist. Number 9 on the list – When you’re stuck, make a list of what wouldn’t happen next – is a great one and can apply to writers in all genres. On Conquering The Fear Of Criticism and Judgement. Check out the book trailer to Joanna Penn’s new thriller PENTECOST Very pleased to present Tribal Writer’s first (…drum roll please…okay, enough with the drums) guest post.

Novel Writing: Choosing a Method that Works Best for You by Margo L. Dill. Is Your Writing Any Good? Do you ever worry that your writing might not be much good? When I talk to writers, especially those who are just beginning to get their work out there in the world, one of the most common fears they have is “I’m not good enough.” All too often, I find myself surprised that they can’t see the strength of their own words. How to Write Anime: 5 steps. How to Write Sad Stories. How to Write an Anime Story. How to Create an Instant Bestselling Novel. How to Write a Tragedy: 6 steps. How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method.

How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method. How to Write Teen Fiction Chapter Books: 6 steps. How to write books for children: Writing for children means thinking about your own past, says writer Michael Rosen. How to Write Every Day When You Don't Want to Write at All. How to Write a Nonfiction Book in a Month. How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Writing. How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me) - Austin Kleon. How to find your writing voice. How To Gather Inspiration and Generate Ideas.

How to Know if You Should Write a Book: 7 steps. HOW TO CALL ON YOUR MUSE: WRITER'S INTUITION ON DEMAND. How do you find your writing muse, AGAIN? Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You. Don’t Write What You Know - Magazine. Creative Writing and Fear - How to overcome the fear of writing. Baby Boomers Write. 7 Reasons Your Muse Isn’t Talking to You. 73 Ways to Become a Better Writer. 7 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Start Writing. 57 Tips For Writers, From Writers. 4 Warning Signs Your Novel Isn’t Working. 4 Ways to Write a Book. 23 (More) Websites that Make Your Writing Stronger. 10 Tricks For Getting Inspired to Write. 10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing. 150 Resources to Help You Write Better, Faster, and More Persuasively.

10 Personal Writing Ideas. 10 Commandments for a Happy Writer by Nathan Bransford. How to Get Inspired to Write (with Examples. Ten rules for writing fiction. Storybird - Artful storytelling. How to Write a Fanfiction: 12 Steps. 7 Tips for Writing Exam Essays. 0431462. 10 Creative Block Breakers That Actually Work. The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. 36 Surprising Ways to Boost Creativity For Free. 6 Writers Who Broke the Rules and Got Away with It. Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers. A ton of useful information about screenwriting from screenwriter John August.

Are You Writing a Book With a Hook or a Gimmick? General Fiction. Back story. Daily Writing Tips. Five Smarter Habits of Great Writers. Flip the Script: Tell, Don’t Show. How to write a book - Now Novel. How to Write a Fanfiction: 12 Steps. How to Write Descriptive Passages Without Boring the Reader or Yourself. Making Graphic Novels. We all have stories to tell. WORDPLAY/Archives/Polti: Dramatic Situations 01-12. Writer Igniter - DIY MFA : DIY MFA. Writing Questions Answered. The Writing Café.