How To Write A Novel Using The Snowflake Method Writing a novel is easy. Writing a good novel is hard. That’s just life. If it were easy, we’d all be writing best-selling, prize-winning fiction. Frankly, there are a thousand different people out there who can tell you how to write a novel. There are a thousand different methods. In this article, I’d like to share with you what works for me. This page is the most popular one on my web site, and gets over a thousand page views per day, so you can guess that a lot of people find it useful. Good fiction doesn’t just happen, it is designed. For a number of years, I was a software architect designing large software projects. I claim that that’s how you design a novel — you start small, then build stuff up until it looks like a story. If you’re like most people, you spend a long time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. But before you start writing, you need to get organized. Step 1) Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel. Shorter is better.
Psychology Today: The Creative Personality Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living. Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity. What makes us different from apes—our language, values, artistic expression, scientific understanding , and technology—is the result of individual ingenuity that was recognized, rewarded, and transmitted through learning. When we're creative, we feel we are living more fully than during the rest of life. I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. Here are the 10 antithetical traits often present in creative people that are integrated with each other in a dialectical tension. Creative people have a great deal of physical energy, but they're also often quiet and at rest.
How to self-publish an ebook | Fully Equipped A while back I wrote a column titled "Self-publishing: 25 things you need to know," which was mostly about how to create and sell your own paper book. After folks asked me to do something similar for e-books, I created this article, which has now been updated a few times. I begin with one caveat: The whole e-book market is rapidly evolving, and a lot of self-publishing companies are offering e-book deals bundled into their print book publishing packages, which makes them harder to break out and evaluate. Tips: It's gotta be good: The same rule applies to self-published e-books as it does to print books. E-book publishing options: Here are the three big questions to bear in mind with e-book creation: first, what is the easiest and most cost-efficient way to produce an e-book? If you don't want to go the total DIY route, you can pay someone a few hundred dollars (or less) to format your e-book for you, but you'll still need to come up with a cover. "Smashwords is great," she said. Booktango
10 Writing Rules You Can't Break...And How to Break Them A guest post by Eric Cummings of On Violence First, there was the “old school.” A bunch of stubborn grammarians got together and decided what defined “proper English.” Then came the “new school” in the sixties. Well, as part of the millennial generation, I’ve got some criticisms for the “new school”, “the old school” and other pieces of advice that I think hold writers back. 1. This advice is considered gospel for a reason: nothing is worse than confused, labyrinthine prose. At the same time, clear writing is different than simple writing. Also, feel free to write long sentences and paragraphs. 2. I see this advice all the time: write with confidence. This advice is intended to prevent writers from using wishy-washy verbs, adjectives or qualifiers. 3. This has become the new school mantra. That said, let big words come naturally. 4. Even amateur writers know not to use passive constructions like, “Jim was stung by a bee.” So one, learn what the passive voice is. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
How to Publish Your Own Amazon Kindle Ebook Would you like to be the next Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling? Perhaps your aspirations are less lofty, but you still have a story--or expert information--to share with the masses. I'm no stranger to publishing, having written or cowritten a dozen books. For a small or medium-size business, self-publishing has a variety of potential benefits. You have assorted options, including Amazon's CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing; Barnes & Noble's PubIt; Lulu; and SelfPublishing.com. If writing an entire book seems daunting, you might prefer to take an existing blog of yours and publish it via Amazon so that everyone with a Kindle can download and read your posted material. What You Need to Publish an Ebook For starters, you need content: Self-published books don't type themselves. Most ebook publishing services are at least capable of working with Microsoft Word files, PDFs, and the open-source ePub format. When the book is done, remember that with self-publishing comes self-promotion.
WriteWorld Tips for Editing Your NaNoWriMo Novel I have been writing fiction for 30+ years and regularly critique the work of others. The best general advice I can offer is to learn why the rules are important and when to break them. No writing 'rule' will make you a good writer. For example: One of the most abused rules of writing is to eliminate the passive voice, often by searching and eliminating forms of 'to be' (is, am, are, was, were). The problem with simply eliminating the passive voice is I can offer a dozen good examples of reasons when the passive voice is not only acceptable, but preferred. 1) When the the character or actor is unknown or hidden. 2) When you want to highlight the action over the actor. 3) When the character is depressed, equivocal, or unable to decide. 4) To distinguish a lull in action or to precede/follow action to make the action seem more vibrant. 5) In some contemplative, self-reflective character examination situations
Worldbuilding: Fantasy Religion Design Guide by Joe Wetzel (joewetzel at gmail dot com) [If you like this article, check out the other Worldbuilding articles on this website using the sidebar navigation.] Depending on your campaign setting idea, in the early stages you may only need a bare minimum of details about your religion. In cases like these make sure you flesh out any particular deities you need (for example if a character is a Cleric or Paladin describe that god in at least bullet points and note any needed game statistics or mechanics such as the god’s domains) and build up the religion later when it is needed or when you have an intriguing idea. But if religion, gods, or a pantheon is a key aspect of your campaign setting idea, you’ll want to work it up in detail early during your fantasy world’s development. Creating a fantasy religion can be as long and detailed task as you want. Religion can provide another venue for conflict and drama in your game world. Multiple Religions? Universal: The world has one religion.
Practical Tips on Writing a Book from 23 Brilliant Authors | NeuroTribes Hello there! If you enjoy the content on Neurotribes, consider subscribing for future posts via email or RSS feed. Steve Silberman reading at the Booksmith in SF. Photo by Heather Champ. I love books. My late father Donald, who taught Wordsworth and Melville to inner-city kids for decades, used to read Ulysses to me while he carried me on his shoulders. The subject of my book is autism, the variety of human cognitive styles, and the rise of the neurodiversity movement. The science of developmental disorders has made significant advances in recent years, and some of the social issues that I raised in the piece — such as the contributions that people with atypical cognitive styles have made to the progress of science, technology, and culture — seem more relevant than ever. I’ve signed a contract with a wonderful publisher — a Penguin imprint called Avery Books — and a sharp and enthusiastic editor named Rachel Holtzman. I’m not sentimental about old media vs. new media. Carl Zimmer
Berley’s Top 10 World Building Tips for Sci Fi or Fantasy | Curse Breaker Series Like I have mentioned in past blog posts, it took me ten years of writing and collecting rejection letters to get to level I am today. And even so I’m still working and still climbing. Always working and always writing to improve my craft. 1. Believe it or not few people put very little thought into the size of their book’s personal universe. The size of your world is not only very important, it’s more important than you think. 2. Save the groans for when you have to pay for you’re kids’ college education. 3. Culture may not be the thing fantasy and sci-fi ignore but it tends to get overlooked quite a bit. 4. For those of you who’ve watched the God-awful 2006 Superman Returns probably remember this quote from Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor: “You see whoever controls technology controls the world. Technology is what makes a dominant country/empire dominate. 5. Thomas Paine once described government, even in it’s best state, as a necessary evil. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Like this: Like Loading...
Writing a Novel – What You Need To Know Welcome to the world of the author. It’s a magical world of puppies and kitties and other creatures with eyes that’ll give you nightmares for years to come. I know they give me nightmares. In any case, you’re likely on this site reading this because you have a story in your head that you want to share with the world. And like many who are new to this world, you want to know how your work can achieve its full potential. In order to do that, you need to establish a foundation, a battle plan, a road map. You see, a novel isn’t just a bunch of words telling a simple tale…well it could be, but then it would be a pretty boring waste of paper, and I’m certain that this isn’t what you’re trying to write. To do any of these things, you have to write something that is good, very good, brilliant even. The first thing you need to do is break your story into parts. These four parts are essential to the novel as a whole, since they work together much like a complex machine. Pacing Twists and turns
Fantasy Name Generator By Samuel Stoddard - Version 1.5 One of the perks of creating fantasy stories -- whether by writing a story or game or by role-playing -- is you get to make up the names. Some people relish the task while others are frustrated by it. In addition, this tool can be fairly amusing to use even if you don't have any name creating to do. You can use the fantasy name generator below. Belief System Generator animism: Non-human entities (animals, plants, things, natural forces) possess a spiritual essence, separate from (and the equal of) humanity. deism: A single creator-god who is separate/distinct from creation, and is not presently active in the created universe. henotheism: A single creator-god is worshipped, but adherents acknowledge/accept the existence of other/outsider gods. monotheism: A single creator-god who is separate/distinct from creation, but is active within the created world. nontheism: A model of moral living not based on a worship of divine/supernatural; real-world examples include Buddhism and Jainism. pandeism: The creator of the universe became the universe, and no longer exists as a separate, conscious entity. pantheism: The divine is the sum total of all there is; everything in creation is a manifestation of that single divine. polytheism: A plurality of gods is recognized and worshipped.