CALLIHOO Writing Helps Character Feelings You can describe your character's feelings in more exact terms than just "happy" or "sad." Check these lists for the exact nuance to describe your character's intensity of feelings. SF Characters | SF Items | SF Descriptors | SF Places | SF EventsSF Jobs/Occupations | Random Emotions | Emotions List | Intensity of Feelings
The Water lily The Water Lily Inn was situated near the centre of the old city, over a thousand years old, the weathered stone exterior still bore scars from the Great War. Black scorch marks trace strange patterns on the stone from ancient wards that protects the building. New roof tiles shine brightly in the late morning sunlight as Gen approached the entrance to the Inn. Smiling to himself as the soldiers at the door straighten at his approach, too young to know who he is yet a personal friend of the Lord Marshall must be important. The Swivet: All new & revised: On word counts and novel length DISCLAIMER: This post was written in 2008, and revised in 2010. The publishing industry has changed drastically in that time, and word counts aren't nearly as rigid nor as important as they once were, especially for writers who are now producing e-original content. Additionally, novellas are now routinely being published by larger publishers, whereas in 2008 they were not.
Uchronia Uchronia refers to a hypothetical or fictional time-period of our world, in contrast to altogether fictional lands or worlds. A concept similar to alternate history but different in the manner that uchronic times are not easily defined (mainly placed in some distant or unspecified point before current times), sometimes reminiscent of a constructed world. Some, however, do use uchronia to refer to an alternate history.[1] The word is a neologism from the word utopia (Greek u-topos no-place), replacing topos with chronos (time). It was coined by Charles Renouvier as the title of his 1876 novel Uchronie (L'Utopie dans l'histoire), esquisse historique apocryphe du développement de la civilisation européenne tel qu'il n'a pas été, tel qu'il aurait pu être (Uchronia (Utopia in History), an Apocryphal Sketch of the Development of European Civilization Not as It Was But as It Might Have Been[2]), reprinted 1988, ISBN 2-213-02058-2.
Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don’t Lately, I have heard several published white writers express their trepidation about the idea of writing non-white characters. Some of them have mentioned that they feel they’ll get in trouble if they continue to write only white characters, but that they also feel they’ll get into trouble if they write characters who aren’t white cause they’ll bugger it up. Damned if you do, they say, damned if you don’t.
The Elmore Leonard Website Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle WRITERS ON WRITING; Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle WRITERS ON WRITING: Being a good author is a disappearing act. By ELMORE LEONARD These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules.
JWAM reader request no. 9: Plot similarities AlisonG Says: I’m working on my first YA novel, and have (of course) discovered two other books that have similar plots. What do you think, should I read the books so I can avoid similarities and reassure myself that my book will be unique? Or should I avoid them so I can claim I was not influenced and did not steal from them?
Recommended Reading for Writers by Gary Gibson Gary Gibson is the author of six science fiction novels for Pan Macmillan, the latest of which, Final Days, was published in August. The sequel, The Thousand Emperors, will be published in 2012. He lives in Glasgow, Scotland. Every time I put together an assessment of a manuscript for Writer’s Workshop, I always include a list of recommended reading. 2: The Zen of First (Zero) Drafts This is the most important tip of all: It’s only a first draft, it doesn’t have to be perfect. You know what that means? You can relax. A first draft can be bad. In fact, it will be bad. Don’t worry about it. Internal Vs. External Conflict by Gary Gibson Gary Gibson is the author of six science fiction novels for Pan Macmillan, the latest of which, Final Days, was published in August. The sequel, The Thousand Emperors, will be published in 2012. He lives in Glasgow, Scotland.
Persons of Interest In response to some perplexed readers of my previous post who wondered what “omniscient” and “limited third” are, here’s a guide for your delectation: First Person: If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.