You and Your Characters Written by James Patrick Kelly Copyright © 1991 by Davis Publications, First published in WRITING SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, edited by Gardner Dozois, et. al., St. Martin’s Press. Once I admitted to myself that I had the raging hunger to write, I gobbled up every book on the subject I could find. 50 Strategies For Making Yourself Work Written by Jerry Oltion Copyright © 2001 by Jerry Oltion Work avoidance is one of the major paradoxes of the writing profession. Generally, writers want to write (or want to have written), but all too often we find ourselves doing anything else but. We’ll mow lawns, do the dishes, polish silverware–anything to keep from facing the blank page. At the same time we know we eventually have to get to work, so we come up with all sorts of strategies for forcing ourselves to the keyboard. Sometimes a single strategy works beautifully for an entire writer’s career (for instance: for over 40 years Fred Pohl wrote four pages a day no matter what, after which he was free to polish all the silverware he wanted), but in my own case I’ve discovered that any particular strategy only works for a couple of months before I learn to subvert it.
10 Tips to Improve Your Fiction Writing Skills Posted by Guest on November 11, 2008 · This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of distance learning universities . She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com. How to Write Thousands of Words Every Single Week How much do you write every week? It’s probably not as much as you’d like. A few years ago, I had all day, every day to write – but I’d still end up spending the whole of Monday writing a couple of pages for my critique group. My novel of the time was progressing at a snail’s pace. Nowadays, if I still wrote at that rate, I’d be broke. (And the blogosphere would be a little emptier.)
Story Conflict - Plot Structure This page will explain how to add complications and twists to your story conflict to create suspense and keep your reader's attention. How to Complicate Your Plot Let's say we're writing a story about a love triangle. Our main character, Martha, is in love with Steve, a married man. Martha's goal is to make Steve leave his wife for her.
10 Steps to Creating Realistic Fantasy Animals by Ashley Lange Why do writers write? Because it isn't there. - Thomas Berger Arguably, the two most challenging aspects for fantasy/science fiction writers to conquer are originality and believability.
23 Websites that Make Your Writing Stronger We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. ~Ernest Hemingway How strong is your writing? No matter how good you think it is, there’s always room for improvement. In most cases, plenty of room. Luckily, there are some amazing websites that’ll help you improve your writing, and take it to the next level. 101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part I What if someone went through the biggest and best blogs on the internet, and pulled out the very best-of-the best tips for fiction writers? That’s what I’ve attempted to do here. I can’t guarantee there aren’t some amazingly helpful writing tips that I haven’t included, but this is a good start.
20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward. If there’s one thing I am grateful for — and it sure isn’t the pay — it’s that my work has allowed endless time to hone my craft to Louis Skolnick levels of grammar geekery. As someone who slings red ink for a living, let me tell you: grammar is an ultra-micro component in the larger picture; it lies somewhere in the final steps of the editing trail; and as such it’s an overrated quasi-irrelevancy in the creative process, perpetuated into importance primarily by bitter nerds who accumulate tweed jackets and crippling inferiority complexes. But experience has also taught me that readers, for better or worse, will approach your work with a jaundiced eye and an itch to judge. While your grammar shouldn’t be a reflection of your creative powers or writing abilities, let’s face it — it usually is.
The Official P/T Collective Archive by Peg Robinson. © 1997 Disclaimer: Distribute freely. The more folks who know how to give and take crit ethically, humanely, and usefully, the better. One of the things I was beginning to suspect just watching the dialogues go by on the newsgroup has been confirmed reading the responses to my query about a crit essay. I thought maybe folks were scaring themselves with the idea that crit was some fabulous, arcane pastime which could only be done well by experts with occult knowledge. Writer’s Digest - Writing Prompts After weeks of secret detective work, partners Barbara and Nolan are on the verge of cracking the case. They’ve been posing as employees at a high-profile financial firm named MoneyMakers LLC., trying to prove that the CEO named (fill in the blank) has been ripping customers off. After hearing him say incriminating things into... You’ve been an extreme coupon cutter for years, to the point where you have gained national recognition for it. But you’ve developed a rival coupon-er named (fill in the blank). He/she has challenged you to an extreme coupon-off, with a list of specific groceries, a budget and only one day to see who can...
Creative Writing Prompts Many creative writers use prompts to generate new material. Prompts can be challenges -- for example, write a story using only one syllable words or craft an alphabet story where the first sentence begins with the letter A, the next sentence B, and so on -- or themes provided by journals, or a poem to which an writer can respond. For example, the Sun lists prompts and deadlines every issue. To see responses, check out "Readers Write."