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20 Great Infodumps From Science Fiction Novels

20 Great Infodumps From Science Fiction Novels

75 Books Every Writer Should Read Whether you want to make writing your career or just want to know how to improve your writing so that you can pass your college courses, there is plenty of reading material out there to help you get inspired and hone your skills. Here’s a collection of titles that will instruct you on just about every aspect of writing, from the basics of grammar to marketing your completed novel, with some incredibly helpful tips from well-known writers themselves as well. Writing Basics These books address things like structure, plot, descriptions and other basic elements of any story. The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers: You can improve the quality of your writing by adding a mythical quality to them with advice and insight from this book. Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler: Whether you agree with the ideas in this book or not, you’ll find it a useful and informative read for writing. Advice from Authors Improving Your Writing Grammar Reference Books

10 Writing "Rules" We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service. I give a hearty Here Here for #4! There is nothing wrong with telling a story that fits within the covers of a single book. Remember, the whole Trilogy+ got started when the publisher got fed up with the fact Tolkien wouldn't finish. The moment I see something like "Book One of the (insert name of place or magic item and latin number)ogy", I want to put the book down. Flagged 'If', by Rudyard Kipling If If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

How to Write a Credible Fantasy Story (with Examples) Add New Question How can I make beings like elves and dwarfs more believable? wikiHow Contributor Give them a culture and a history. They will be either as natural to your world as humans are, or they split off of humanity due to natural disaster and were forced to evolve. For example: in a post atomic war setting, dwarves might be humans who evolved shorter because they lived underground for so long. How do I start an introduction to a story? Ask a Question If this question (or a similar one) is answered twice in this section, please click here to let us know.

The Modern Library | 100 Best | Novels ULYSSES by James Joyce Written as an homage to Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, Ulysses follows its hero, Leopold Bloom, through the streets of Dublin. Overflowing with puns, references to classical literature, and stream-of-consciousness writing, this is a complex, multilayered novel about one day in the life of an ordinary man. Click here to read more about ULYSSES THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Set in the Jazz Age, The Great Gatsby tells the story of the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby, his decadent parties, and his love for the alluring Daisy Buchanan. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce Published in 1916, James Joyce’s semiautobiographical tale of his alter ego, Stephen Dedalus, is a coming-of-age story like no other. Click here to read more about A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov Lolita tells the story of middle-aged Humbert Humbert’s love for twelve-year-old Dolores Haze. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller U.S.A. In E.

The Difference Engine The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It is widely regarded as one of the first "true" steampunk books written in the late 20th century. It posits a Victorian Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical computer (actually his analytical engine rather than the difference engine). The novel was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award in 1990, the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1991, and both the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Prix Aurora Award in 1992. Setting[edit] In the novel, the British Empire is more powerful than in reality, thanks to the development and use of extremely advanced steam-driven technology in industry. Plot summary[edit] During the story, many characters come to believe that the punch cards are a gambling "modus", a programme that would allow the user to place consistently winning bets.

Articles Creating fictional characters requires adversity, There are few happy stories in the world. There are happy endings. There are happy characters. Few stories revolve around the good things that happen to people. If they do, there is a downside to the “good things” that happen to them. Stories are about adversity and conflict. Creating Fictional Characters Using Physical Adversity Physical adversity is death, injury, illness and threat. Creating Fictional Characters Using Miscommunication and Deception This is a classic plot complication. Deception is similar to miscommunication, but it involves deliberate lies. Creating fictional characters using miscommunication and deception is good, but be careful, you don’t want your characters to seem like idiots. Creating Fictional Characters Using Displacement Displacement is another popular adversity that fictional characters face. Creating Fictional Characters Using Desire Every good fictional character has unfulfilled wants and needs. Mix Things Up

66 Facts You May Not Have Known About The English Language | Paul Anthony Jones The English language is, quite literally, the greatest language in the world. Great in terms of size - the current edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 615,000 entries. Great in terms of scope — it’s an official language in seventy-nine countries and territories. And great in terms of, well, greatness — it’s just one fantastic mishmash of borrowings, inventions, corruptions, misinterpretations, misspellings, alterations, words you’ll never need, and words you never even knew you’ll never need. Since December 2013, @HaggardHawks has been trying to prove precisely this by tweeting odd words, word origins and language facts everyday. 1,300 tweets later, it turns six months old this week and so to celebrate, here are 66 random facts from our first semester that hopefully go some way towards showing how great — and how downright bizarre — the English language can be. 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. 31.

HOWTO: Read more books I’ve read a hundred books a year for the past couple years. Last time I mentioned this, a couple people asked how I could read so many books. Do I read unusually quickly? Do I spend an unusual amount of time reading? I did a simple calculation: The average person spends 1704 hours a year watching TV. Block your favorite blogs. I suspect few people will take all of this advice, but hopefully some of it is useful to you. Of course, long ago Cosma Shalizi said all this shorter and better: Where do you find the time to read so much? …but then again, everything I write is just commentaries on off-hand remarks by Cosma. posted by Aaron Swartz on March 2, 2010 # Um, #3 seems a little extreme. I also read a lot, but would like to have some evidence that it helps me with my broader life and goals. posted by Andy C on March 2, 2010 # Nice post. posted by Michael Morisy on March 2, 2010 # I find audio books another excellent source for getting more reading in. posted by Jason Lotito on March 2, 2010 #

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (French: [aʁto]; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French playwright, poet, actor, essayist, and theatre director.[1] §Early life[edit] Antoine Artaud was born 4 September 1896 in Marseille, France, to Euphrasie Nalpas and Antoine-Roi Artaud.[2] Both his parents were natives of Smyrna (modern-day İzmir), and he was greatly affected by his Greek ancestry.[2] His mother gave birth to nine children, but only Antonin and one sister survived infancy. Artaud's parents arranged a long series of sanatorium stays for their temperamental son, which were both prolonged and expensive. §Paris[edit] In March 1920, Artaud moved to Paris to pursue a career as a writer, and instead discovered he had a talent for avant-garde theatre. In 1926-28, Artaud ran the Alfred Jarry Theatre, along with Roger Vitrac. In 1931, Artaud saw Balinese dance performed at the Paris Colonial Exposition. §Final years[edit] §Theatre of cruelty[edit]

Les 100 classiques à lire absolument Je cherchais, sur le net, une liste des 100 romans que tout le monde connait, les meilleurs des classiques en somme. Tout ce que j'ai pu trouver, c'est un bouquin fumeux de Beigbeder et la liste du Time.Il y a effectivement des choses à retenir de cette liste, mais elle me pose deux problèmes. D'abord, le très ambitieux "de tous les temps" se limite en fait à... 1923-2000. Ça fait un peu court. Je propose donc de tous vous mettre à contribution pour établir LA liste JE, celle qui vous permettra de dévaliser efficacement votre libraire et de briller par votre culture aux diners chez belle-maman.Et, dans mon infinie magnanimité, je vais essayer de tenir la liste à jour dans ce post.Quelques contraintes histoire que ça ne parte pas (trop) en vrille :- Nom de l'œuvre ET auteur. Pour le reste, freestyle ! Classement roman par nombre de fois cité : 149 . N'ont pas trouvé preneur (cités une seule fois) :

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926) — better known as Rainer Maria Rilke (German: [ˈʁaɪnɐ maˈʁiːa ˈʁɪlkə]) — was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets",[1] writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. Several critics have described Rilke's work as inherently "mystical".[2][3] His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry, and several volumes of correspondence in which he invokes haunting images that focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety. These deeply existential themes tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist writers. Biography[edit] Early life (1875–1896)[edit] Rilke, three years old, circa 1878–1879 Munich and Saint Petersburg[edit] In 1898, Rilke undertook a journey lasting several weeks to Italy. Paris (1902–1910)[edit]

Famous Advice on Writing: The Collected Wisdom of Great Writers By Maria Popova By popular demand, I’ve put together a periodically updated reading list of all the famous advice on writing presented here over the years, featuring words of wisdom from such masters of the craft as Kurt Vonnegut, Susan Sontag, Henry Miller, Stephen King, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Susan Orlean, Ernest Hemingway, Zadie Smith, and more. Please enjoy. Jennifer Egan on Writing, the Trap of Approval, and the Most Important Discipline for Aspiring Writers “You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.”

Why Pulitizer Prize-Winner Donna Tartt Is My Role Model Tartt's author photo=the coolest. I wanted to throw a parade when I found out that Donna Tartt won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel The Goldfinch. I know parades are usually only for, like, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July, but if we were going to organize a national holiday around a living author, I’d vote for Tartt. I’ve been the biggest fan of Tartt’s ever since I ferociously ate her first novel, The Secret History. She’s a big-time role model of mine and in honor of her winning the fanciest and most important American literary prize you can win, I think it’s time to talk about why she should be a role model for us all. 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.)

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