Sometimes you just want something short. Fantasy books are getting longer. I enjoy Epic fantasy, but sometimes I want something a little grittier, a little shorter, and something where the fate of the kingdom or the world isn’t at stake. It’s a lot like when I’m trying to find a recipe and have to scroll […]
Those of you in the writing and publishing community might have heard the phrase “Writing to Market.” If you’re heard the phrase, you’re probably having one or two reactions: Either you think it’s super smart or you think it’s selling out. Most of the time, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of nuance to […]
What’s better than a gun going off and bullets flying? More guns? More bullets? A hail of bullets? Yes. How does our hero stop a villain who has a gun? With more guns, of course! Or as the Tv Tropes page says, “More Dakka is the art of solving problems by unloading as many rounds […]
Everybody’s journey is different. Some of us grow up writing stories and know from an early age that we’re going to spend our life writing stories. Others come to the craft later, but no less hungry; maybe they’re avid readers of an underserved genre and decide they want to write their own story to fill […]
Before we dive into today’s obscure trope, it might be best to preface with morality. In fiction, there are two general morality scales: Black-and-White or Grey-and-Grey. In Black and White morality stories, the heroes and the bad guys are easy to tell apart. There’s likely some virtuously good force against some clearly evil one. In […]
The image that most people have of writing is a lot like reading. We imagine the author punching line after line into the keyboard (or typewriter), plodding along in the same direction that we read: From page one to page one hundred. This view is both poetic and wrong, and the source of a lot […]
The Trope Series will be an ongoing, multiangle look at Tropes—what they are, how you can use them, as well as highlighting some specific tropes each month. My hope is that both readers and writers can get something out of these posts. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Tropes First, what is a trope? Well, a trope is a tool that […]
I recently finished Kurt Vonnegut’s writing book Pity the Reader. In it, Suzanne McConnell (a former student of Vonnegut’s) compiles various pieces of advice and tidbits from the master. I might do a more in depth review of the book (which, in short, was great), but I was struck by the section, Eeny-Meeny-Miny-Moe or Choice. […]
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” –Jack London I think a lot of writers start out with the image of themselves as tortured artists, slaving away at the keyboard or waiting for inspiration to strike. They write infrequently, if ever, and have more manuscripts half-finished on their […]
Like all things in life, there is both a short answer and a longer answer to the question of “Where do authors find their inspiration?” Short answer: Everywhere. Slightly longer answer: Everywhere, but you need to be open and receptive to it. The rest of the answer: Inspiration can come from anywhere but it often […]
Samuel Fleming Books 