10 Reading Exercises for Fiction Writers
I always find it exciting when I discover a book that in some way echoes whatever I happen to be writing at the time. It might share a similarity of style, story, or structure, or any combination of the three. Whatever the similarity, I find it helpful to delve into the writing to see what lessons I can glean. After reading several duds recently, I finally came across such a book–The China Garden by Kristina Olsson. While the story isn’t similar to my current work, the prose captured me from the very first page.
Character meme fun!
This is how I was procrastinating during the exam period. "Post-processual theory? ...After I've cleared out my hard drive, I think... ... ooh! What's this? A daft questionnaire I saved from somewhere on the Internet?
How to Hook Your Readers
on June 14th, 2010 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill and last modified on November 8, 2010 Remember the musical number from Gypsy, “Gotta Get a Gimmick”? The strippers advised Gypsy Rose Lee that to be successful, she’d need a gimmick, something eye-catching that would grab the attention of audience members.
5 Ways To Hack Your Brain Into Awesomeness
Much of the brain is still mysterious to modern science, possibly because modern science itself is using brains to analyze it. There are probably secrets the brain simply doesn't want us to know. But by no means should that stop us from tinkering around in there, using somewhat questionable and possibly dangerous techniques to make our brains do what we want. We can't vouch for any of these, either their effectiveness or safety. All we can say is that they sound awesome, since apparently you can make your brain...
6 Rules for a Great Story from Barnaby Conrad and Snoopy
by Maria Popova “And remember: Always aim for the heart!” You might recall Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life (public library), which gave us Ray Bradbury’s wise words on rejection. To recap: Barnaby Conrad and Monte Schulz, son of Peanuts creator Charles M.
36 Surprising Ways to Boost Creativity For Free
We already know being creative can make us happier and healthier. But while we may think of creativity in terms of penning or painting a masterpiece, experts say it can really mean anything from trying a new recipe to submitting an original idea during a meeting. Here we’ve got 36 ways to fire up that creative spark, from writing by hand to visiting a foreign country.
The 100 Most Important Things To Know About Your Character (revised)
Quote from original Author(Beth):This list came about when, one day while struggling to develop a character for an upcoming Hunter game, my lovely roommate Nikki looked at me and said something like, "Wouldn't it be cool to have a list of questions you could go through and answer while you were making characters, so you'd make sure to consider all sorts of different elements in their personality?" I agreed, and that very evening we sat down over hot chocolate and ramen noodles to whip up a list of 100 appearance-, history-, and personality-related questions (which seemed like a nice even number) to answer as a relatively easy yet still in-depth character building exercise. Later on, we went through the list again, took out the questions that sucked (because there were a lot of them) and replaced them with better ones.
How to Write a Story: Creative Story Ideas, Tips to Help You Write Your Own Book
Get creative story ideas, write your own book! Want to write a good book? Check out these tips on how to write a story that captures readers' attention from beginning to end: How to Write a Story #1: Know Your Market, Get Story Ideas and Outline Your Plot The first step is to know who you are writing for, and what your readers want; this may lead you to novel ideas for stories.
Hard-Packed Ice Cream Or Soft-Serve?
Part of a series: Two choices—which do you choose? Ice cream is way more fun to eat in the summer, especially if you like to go to places where they serve it to you in a cup or cone, because it’s like, a very American Summer kinda activity, hitting the ice cream place for something cold and sweet and bad for you, and in the summer, more than the other seasonals, the mere act of Hey I’m Going To Get Some Ice Cream, or Hey Let’s Go Get Some Ice Cream becomes a Social and Cultural Event, because you are gonna go to a place where lotsa other Peoples of the Earth are out there, in The World, on the exact same mission as you, and you will Congregate in peace and harmony and sprinkles. So now in the summer, when Ice Cream is Go, the first decision is: Hard Packed or Soft Serve? My name is Joe and my favorite flavor of ice cream in the whole wide world is the Baskin-Robbins Jamoca® Almond Fudge. You don’t get this with a hard-packed cone.
Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
How to Make a Storyboard Before a house is built, the architect draws a plan of the house. Similarly, in creating a book, the illustrator first draws a plan--the storyboard. The story board is a two dimensional model, with all the pages of the book laid out on one piece of paper. You can see the whole book at a glance, how each page relates to another and the whole.
How to Flesh out a Country or Region in Your Fantasy RPG World
Edit Article Edited by Zach Haffey, Maluniu, Glutted, Nicole Willson and 5 others Hello game master/fantasy author.
Where Should a Second Chapter Start?
on October 12th, 2010 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill and last modified on October 12, 2010 We’ve all read advice about the first chapter—how and where to begin a story; what makes for strong openings, depending on the genre; what not to include in the first paragraph or page of chapter one; what to include in a novel’s opening. We understand that a good opening chapter sets the tone and introduces lead characters and gets the plot rolling. We know almost as much about the final chapter, the final paragraph, and the final words. About how to finish a story so that it’s complete and satisfying and induces the reader to want more.
A Conversation With a 17th-Century Sorceress
In response to a recent comment, I got in touch with a 17th-century sorceress.What kind of spells do you cast? What kind of spells don't I cast! Well, there are a number, actually. In fact, mostly I only do love spells, but usually by the time I finish describing their pros and cons, and how people generally feel after I cast one for them (bad, almost uniformly, unless they're unwell), most people decide against them.
