Online - Thirty Tools for Writers [Author’s note: Of the many things I’ve written for the Poynter website, none has been as popular as my "Twenty Tools for Writers." This list has been quoted, cited, praised, debated, and repurposed by writers, editors, teachers, and other professionals who care about the craft. That folks find these tools useful gives me courage. As you can see, I’m very impressed with myself. At times it helps to think of writing as carpentry. Below is a list of 30 writing and revising tools. Sentences and Paragraphs 1. 2. 3. 4. Language 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Effects 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Structure 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. The Writing Life 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. This list contains tools, not rules. Tags: Writing tips and techniques
Creative Uses of Magic in Your Fantasy Story Creative Uses of Magic in Your Fantasy Story by Philip Martin Return to Speculative Fiction · Print/Mobile-Friendly Version How can you create an interesting form of magic for your fantasy story? Will magic, in your fiction, be like a tool? A technique? Or will you have several forms, as Tolkien did in The Lord of the Rings, where the dark forces use magic like a bulldozer to gain power, while the elves have a wonderful nature that is magic simply because everything they do is "more effortless, more quick, more complete" than the abilities of those around them? In fantasy fiction, magic is the central nervous system. Magic doesn't need to be plausible, but it has to work well. 1. Magic needs to work according to firm rules. Everything should be set in place long in advance. 2. For dramatic impact, as important as the powers of magic are its limitations. In the Harry Potter books, Harry's nemesis, Lord Voldemort, has great powers, but even so, those powers are limited. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
World Building 101 World Building 101 by Lee Masterson You are the ultimate creator of your fictional world. No matter where or when your story is set, regardless of what events unfold, and despite the characters you introduce to your readers, they are all products of your unique imagination. "But I write romance set in the present time," I hear you cry. It doesn't matter whether your story is set in 16th century Middle Europe, or the 28th century Altarian star-system, your story still belongs in a world created entirely by you. The good news is you still get your chance to put on your megalomaniac's hat and play God! Regardless of where (or when) your story is set, YOU have decided your characters' destinies for them. But there's a whole lot more to world-building than simply creating a nice backdrop for your characters to parade against. In short, the fictional world your characters live in must seem plausible to your readers. Ask yourself these things about your characters and your story: -
Fantasy Clichés to Avoid - What Beginners Do in Fantasy Fiction Fantasy Fiction Clichés to Avoid - What Beginners Do in Fantasy Fiction [First, my profound apologies to the vast majority of readers who don't steal content, but I have to state the following. This article and all content on this website belongs to Val Kovalin, copyright © Obsidianbookshelf.com, except where noted. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without written permission from Val Kovalin is strictly prohibited. Here at Obsidianbookshelf.com, I always have to keep these clichés in mind. Architecture.An historic castle is sometimes really tiny! In reality, those castles and keeps were sometimes built small to be easy to defend. Appearance of character.Keep it to a minimum.I'm all for not describing your character at all, and letting your readers fill in their own picture. I realize that writers of romance or epic fantasy will probably ignore my advice. Characters – EthnicityWhy is everyone a Northern European? For example, I have a sergeant. Read Tolkien.
Story Generator Stories This is a satire. The story is about a disloyal ranger who is stalked by a paladin. This is a pure action story. The story is about a naive CFO, a wizard, a fire fighter, and a focused stylist. This is an escape-from-prison story with an emphasis on the need for self-expression. This is a story about family. This is a tale about alienation and how the invention of man can destroy him. This is an odd-couple-teams-up story. This is a natural disaster with an emphasis on man's need for freedom. This is a horror/drama with a strong theme of trust. This is a tale about the dangers of self-expression.
Brent Weeks | 2. Writing Fantasy: Tools & Techniques a. World Building i. Tips/strategies ii. b. i.How do you write a bad guy? c. d. e. a. i. A lot of writers have different takes on your question than I do. But my answer is that the story is what matters. There are more and less elegant solutions to the problem of how you set up an entire world and lay the ground rules quickly. ii. I’m not going to be able to do justice to your question about world-building in one short post here. The world-building has to occur along sort of two tracks: first, you need to set up a lot of things that you absolutely know about the world. Secondly, you’re going to have to think about just how the world works. So along that first track of thinking, you, outside of the fiction, need to make all of these decisions about how the world actually works. Third, do things differently. Fourth, now you have to put all of this into practice. Fifth, the biggest thing about world building is that you can talk at length about anything you find fascinating. b.
25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer When George Plimpton asked Ernest Hemingway what the best training for an aspiring writer would be in a 1954 interview, Hem replied, “Let’s say that he should go out and hang himself because he finds that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he should be cut down without mercy and forced by his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging to commence with.” Today, writing well is more important than ever. So what can we do to improve our writing short of hanging ourselves? 1. Don’t just plan to write—write. 2. [The] Resistance knows that the longer we noodle around “getting ready,” the more time and opportunity we’ll have to sabotage ourselves. 3. Find your best time of the day for writing and write. 4. Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet. 5. Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. 6. 7. Hone your outline and then cling to it as a lifeline. 8. 9.
25 Fantasy Writing Prompts If you wait for inspiration to strike before you start writing, you might never put pen to paper or fingers to keys. That’s where writing prompts can help. Since I write scifi and fantasy, I’ve put together a list of 25 fantasy writing prompts to get you started. They’re mostly contemporary fantasy ideas: supernatural, magic, vampires, stuff like that. A working-dad desperate for money to feed his family turns to robbery, only to find that he’s chosen a wizard as his victim.A man comes home from work one evening to find that his couch is missing. 25 Fantasy Writing Prompts by Justin McLachlan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
365 Creative Writing Prompts - ThinkWritten Sharing is caring! As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support! If you want to become a better writer, the best thing you can do is practice writing every single day. To help you brainstorm, we put together this list of 365 creative writing prompts to give you something to write about daily. Whether you write short stories, poems, or like to keep a journal – these will stretch your imagination and give you some ideas for topics to write about! Want to Download these prompts? Don’t want the printable version? Here are 365 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51: Sunrise/Sunset: The sun comes up, the sun goes down. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86. 87. 88. 89.
How to Make Readers Feel Emotion on January 30th, 2011 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill and last modified on February 8, 2011 I wrote an article on the importance of creating emotions in readers, but I’ve noticed that writers are looking for specifics on how to accomplish that. So, this article complements that first one, presents practical tips on how to stir the reader’s emotions. Readers like to be touched, moved, by story. They like to imagine themselves in worlds and situations that challenge them, that give them opportunity to do and be something other than what they do or are in their real lives. Fiction, whether in book or film or games, allows people to not only step into other worlds, but to experience those worlds. Since readers want to immerse themselves in other worlds and other lives, what can writers do to make that experience authentic, to make the fictional world real for a few hours? But how can a writer accomplish this? 1. This is a major key for rousing reader emotions. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
How To Worldbuild Magic: Short Rules for Real Worlds Fantasy writers take a significant amount of crap from SF writers for what the SF writers perceive as their “fluffy bunny” worldbuilding and their use of magic as an easy out for solving their characters’ problems. In fact, however, magic is no more of an easy way out for well-written fantasy than physics is an easy way out for well-written SF. The following are ten rules that will make your use of magic in your fantasy novel rigorous, and will save you from the “fluffy-bunny” label — and will, at the same time, make your story better, more entertaining, and more exciting. 1. Nothing comes from nothing. Also known as There Ain’t No Free Lunch. 2a. When your characters start using magic, they must be made to pay for it in some way. 2b. This rule is the storyteller’s best friend – in fantasy, in SF, in mainstream… anywhere. 3. The most obdurate magical stone wall created by the mightiest evil wizard had better have a crack in it that a determined, intelligent hero can find with effort. 4.