By nature, a lot of writers are shy, reserved, intellectuals. Some of us may have been picked on as kids back in school, and so have developed a preoccupation with what others will think about how we do things, afraid of criticism, and just too caught up in following the rules that everyone tells us …
Tag: tips
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Writing Tips: Time Travel In A Story
Time travel is one of those things that is great as a concept, but all too often a horrible miss in execution. Be it in books, movies, or TV, too often the author thinks that the phrase “It’s time travel, who can understand it?”, or “Temporal physics gives me a headache,” is all they need …
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Writing Tip: Weather in Your World
If you are writing an epic that spans the globe of whatever fantasy or SF world you have created, sooner or later the subject of weather will come up. And if you do indeed have an entire world to deal with (or most enough of one) then it is not just enough to start sprinkling …
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Writing Tips: Plotting Multi-Volume Epics
There’s something to be said about a good epic, the kind that spans several volumes. But for the writer, that involves a lot of planning ahead. For myself, I have written a fantasy ep;ic that spans 13 novels, 5.2 million words, and about 250 characters, as well as a smaller Sci-Fi epic at 5 novels, …
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Writing Tips: Messages In A Story
A lot of writers have a certain message they would like to put into a story. That is all fine and well, but it is important to remember that the story must come first. No matter how strong or important a message you may have, it will not be heard if the reader doesn’t finish …
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Writing Tip: Your Wrap-Around Story Has To Make Sense
Many movies have what I would call a Wrap Around Story, or STory Enclosure, that amounts to the excuse for the rest of the story. The Fifth Element would be one example; big bad amorphous evil coming to destroy Earth, and that is the excuse for the adventures. Great movie, but the wrap around is …
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Combining Fantasy and Science Fiction in Your Writing
Most genre stories are either Fantasy, with wizards and magic swords, or Science Fiction, with space ships and ray guns. Very rarely do you ever find something that combines both, and even then it’s usually done very badly. The old “I got my wand and he has his ray gun” approach. So, how is one …
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Thinking Up Alien Names
Fantasy and Science Fiction have something in common when it comes to names; they gotta sound unearthly. Something from another culture unknown to this Earth or any of its languages. But how to come up with them? There are numerous ways, and often the best is to just start slapping syllables together and see what …
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Mark’s 10 (11) Tips For Story Writing
I finally found the file I’d created from whence I got these tips from, so rather than piecemeal them, here’s the whole list at once. Then in later posts I’ll get into some specifics for fantasy and SF worlds. These are my 10 basic tips for writing a good story. Be it novel or short …
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Writing Tip #2: Your Work Environment
A very important part of writing is where and how you do so. For myself, complete and utter silence just gets me fidgety. Music, on the other hand, helps me focus on my story for hours on end. And focus not only means you can be at it longer, but also better. When I’m deep …
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