Daniel Arenson, Fantasy Author - Kindle and iPad Fantasy Novels, Character Motivation © 2007 Daniel Arenson I previously wrote about creating great characters who stand out. In this article, I’d like to drill deeper into the subject of characterization and discuss what motivates our characters. To create powerful drama, characters should be motivated by deep, personal needs. Even if you’re writing a story about politics and international intrigue, I suggest that your characters be motivated by jealousy, love, or hate. Let’s look at an example. Suppose I’m writing a thriller about a British spy in the Soviet Union. Ivanov is prepared to authorize an invasion of a small Asian country aligned with Britain, and Anya holds his battle plans. But can we crank the drama up a notch? Suppose that Hathaway and Ivanov were old classmates in Oxford. Now, years later, Hathaway wants to get back at Ivanov. Ivanov, meanwhile, prepares for war. What about Anya? I began with a story about war and international intrigue. Enjoyed these writing tips?
Son of Citation Machine Tips for writing a good paper: Common Grammatical Mistakes: Sentence Fragments These are incomplete sentences. Remember that ALL SENTENCES need a subject and a verb.Example: She was an interesting talker. (This is a complete sentence.) A woman who had traveled all over the world and lived in 7 countries. Comma Errors Periods and commas go inside quotation marks.Example: I am consistently amazed by the TV show "The X-Files." Two sentences cannot be separated by a comma. Agreement Errors A subject must agree with or match the verb. But, while these examples are simple, some subject/verb agreements are not so easy to spot. She is one of those people who are never ready on time. In this case, the subject of the sentence is the word people instead of she. Organizational Tips: Methods Of Organizing Your Paper First, narrow down your topic into something manageable. Organizing before you write gives your ideas a structure to cling to; it allows you to articulate, analyze, and clarify your thoughts. The First Draft
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.
Turkey City Lexicon – A Primer for SF Workshops Edited by Lewis Shiner Second Edition by Bruce Sterling Introduction by Lewis Shiner This manual is intended to focus on the special needs of the science fiction workshop. Having an accurate and descriptive critical term for a common SF problem makes it easier to recognize and discuss. This guide is intended to save workshop participants from having to “reinvent the wheel” (see section 3) at every session. The terms here were generally developed over a period of many years in many workshops. Introduction (II) by Bruce Sterling People often ask where science fiction writers get their ideas. Workshops come in many varieties — regional and national, amateur and professional, formal and frazzled. But the workshopping experience does not require any shepherding by experts. The general course of action in the modern SF workshop (known as the “Milford system”) goes as follows. No doubt a very interesting book could be written about science fiction in which the writing itself played no part. Fuzz
Synonyms for words commonly used in student's writing Amazing- incredible, unbelievable, improbable, fabulous, wonderful, fantastic, astonishing, astounding, extraordinary Anger- enrage, infuriate, arouse, nettle, exasperate, inflame, madden Angry- mad, furious, enraged, excited, wrathful, indignant, exasperated, aroused, inflamed Answer- reply, respond, retort, acknowledge Ask- question, inquire of, seek information from, put a question to, demand, request, expect, inquire, query, interrogate, examine, quiz Awful- dreadful, terrible, abominable, bad, poor, unpleasant Beautiful - pretty, lovely, handsome, attractive, gorgeous, dazzling, splendid, magnificent, comely, fair, ravishing, graceful, elegant, fine, exquisite, aesthetic, pleasing, shapely, delicate, stunning, glorious, heavenly, resplendent, radiant, glowing, blooming, sparkling Begin - start, open, launch, initiate, commence, inaugurate, originate Brave - courageous, fearless, dauntless, intrepid, plucky, daring, heroic, valorous, audacious, bold, gallant, valiant, doughty, mettlesome
How to becoming a better writer by Stephen King If you want to learn how to write better where do you go? Well, you can take a creative writing course. Or read the books, biographies and studies of men and women hailed as literary geniuses throughout history. For today, I’ve chosen to take some advice from one the most popular fiction writers of the last few decades: Stephen King. Now, great sales figures aren’t always an indication of greatness in any field. But it probably means that the creator knows what s/he is doing and what works. , The Long Walk or The Running Man – are really good reads (and sometimes even greater films I’ve learned/been reminded about these seven tips by rereading King’s memoir/how-to-write book On Writing – highly recommended for many good insights into writing and a writer’s life – and by a whole bunch of his novels I’ve sacrificed sleep to keep on reading. 1. Don’t waste your reader’s time with too much back-story, long intros or longer anecdotes about your life. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How do you find time to read more?
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.
How to kick-start the writing habit Blogging can bring your business exposure, credibility, and whole lot more revenue – so it’s in your best interest to deliver a steady stream of powerful writing. But for a lot of us, that’s a tall order. If you’re finding your creative juices running a little dry, this list of quick and easy tips is sure to get them flowing again. Write nothing but headlines. Keep it rocking 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.
Q10 Key features Full-screen. Focus on your work. Even if Mark Pilgrim doesn't like full-screen editors, some of us do. Live text statistics. Word, page and character counts are updated live as you type. Programmable page count formula. Specify what formula to use for page count calculation. Customizable look and paragraph format. Change the colors, line spacing, first line indent, paragraph spacing, font... Perfectly portable. A single self-contained executable file. Easy to use timer alarm. Perfect for timed writing sessions and word wars. Spell checker. You don't make mistakes. Notes. Any paragraph starting with ".." is considered a note. Target count. Displays completed percentage. Partial counts. Keep track of the extension of current chapter or see how much content you've produced in the current writing session. Autocorrections and quick text. Unlimited autocorrection entries to fix on the fly those persistent typing errors. Standard and clean text format. Encoding and line endings agnostic. Free.