Daily 10 News, Videos, Reviews and Gossip - io9 "1. 4Chan script kiddies unleash a virus that takes control of military drones (yes, such a virus already exists), crashing them into random targets just for the lulz." Would it be more likely that virus or worm would instead keep fetching porn images from 4Chan and then display them on the operator's monitors as the drone useless crashed into a children's orphanage or something? "2. How do people deal with space elevator music? The trip from Earth to the launch platform is three days long!" I'm think this would be handled in the same why as cruise ships or train travel, lots of movies, books to read and shuffleboard. "3. I'd rather see that happen to Dennis Richie, who died at roughly the same time, and in co-creating Unix and writing the first C compiler, had at least as large affect on the world as Jobs and Woz did. Sadly his death got almost no fanfare in the press. "4. For this! [www.youtube.com] "5. That is a frighteningly serious possibility. "6. Actually I think Gibson did this. "7.
60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers June 20th, 2010 Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient. Professional Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines. Writing These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process. Research Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap. Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. Reference Need to look up a quote or a fact? Niche Writers
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. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Val Kovalin and Obsidianbookshelf.com with a return link to the original content.] 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. For example, I have a sergeant.
Ten rules for writing fiction Elmore Leonard: Using adverbs is a mortal sin 1 Never open a book with weather. If it's only to create atmosphere, and not a character's reaction to the weather, you don't want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want. 2 Avoid prologues: they can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. 3 Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. 4 Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said" ... he admonished gravely. 5 Keep your exclamation points under control. 6 Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". 7 Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. 8 Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. 10 Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Diana Athill Margaret Atwood Roddy Doyle
30 Days of WorldBuilding By popular demand, you can now download the Magical WorldBuilder Guide in three easy-to-carry (non-DRM) formats: PDF for printing out at home or reading on a computerePub for use with many fine ereader devicesMOBI for use with Kindles and MobiPocket software.As of 2007, The world-builder exercises are licensed under a Creative Commons license to help you in deciding whether you can translate (yes, with credit back), distribute to your writing group (yes, with credit), sell (not without permission), reprint (yes, for non-commercial purposes), or mirror (yes, with credit back) this useful guide! In October, 2004, I posted 30 days of world-building exercises to the NaNoWriMo discussion forums. These are short, 15-minute exercises that can help you make crucial decisions about your world, and what you want your story to say about it. These exercises have been edited for general use and re-posted here. So, give yourself 7 and a half hours this month-- 15 minutes a day-- to build a world.
Fantasy Holly Lisle's Vision By Jim Francis ©2001, Jim Francis One of the fun things about magic stories is, well, the fun. Take a look at the magic your characters can work. They might use magic so they can fly without the aid of an aircraft, though at times they may need a battery powered electric broom; they can temporarily freeze people while forgotten things are fixed; or, when pushed for time, whop up a banquet from the fixings at a moment's notice. What might go wrong when your average magic-practicing and harassed housewife needs to go to the supermarket, or mall? She keeps her Palm locked away because her husband tends to play with things. She comes back ,hits enter, and the computer speakers intone the spell. At the check out her debit card is rejected, and the cashier hits a key. The adventure, however, is not yet over.
5 situations where it's better to tell than show in your fiction @ceti: BAH! Curse you both! This is a ploy with my co-worker, who only mentioned that I need to take this book from my shelf, dust it off, and read it already. You're all my Jiminy Crickets...Resolution #1 decided. @ceti: (My posts don't show correctly at times, so I apologize if this is a double.) Curse you both for conspiring with my co-worker, who only yesterday mentioned that I needed to take this book from my shelf, dust it off, and read it. You are all my Jiminy Crickets...Resolution #1 decided. Thanks! @Craig Michael Ranapia: Good example. That was pretty captivating!
How to write a novel: 25 rules 1. Never be in awe of your own style. 2. Writer's block = writer's indecision. 3. Write anything at first. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. The Fantasy Fiction Formula "Rob Parnell is the World's Foremost Writing Guru" - Writers Digest Best Writers' Site - Critters #1 Best Writers' Info Site 2010 - 2011 Writers! Click here to get published free by Magellan Books. The Fantasy Fiction Formula Rob Parnell Now, most fantasy writers have been constructing their fictional world since childhood. I remember an interview with JK Rowling where she wandered her home town for the camera, recounting the points, places and people that influenced her Harry Potter world, right from when she was a kid. Similarly, JR Tolkein was an ardent lifelong scholar of "Middle Earth" languages way before he set pen to paper. But if you're new to the genre, where do you begin? Many professional fantasy writers will joke about 'the formula' for good fantasy because it does exist and good fantasy authors still use it - not because they're lazy but because the fans want it - in fact insist on it! It has been condensed thus: 'Hero, artifact, quest'. Get a very large sheet of paper.
How Not to Be a Clever Writer I think you're somewhat misunderstanding what I'm saying here. I'm not saying "No risk or experimentation." I'm saying those things are tools — use them to tell the story you want to tell, don't just use them because you want to use them. My interpretation of the article is that it's a sort of 'How not to be JJ Abrams'. As much as I love the majority of what I've seen of his stuff, he does seem to try too hard to be clever a LOT of the time. I love the complex plotting of Lost, but it gets convoluted and drops a lot of interesting ideas at times, and the bracelet thing at the end of Super 8 was cringeworthingly heavy-handed. Sometimes with this kind of cleverness, it's best to accept you don't know how to make it work in this scenario. And I think you're misunderstanding me a little. :) No, you're not saying it, but your piece does suggest particular directions over others.
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