Compare and Contrast: Effective Writing vs. Ineffective Writing

This is a very good video for describing subtextual storytelling vs. telling the audience everything that is going on as it happens. For prose writing this type of discussion may not seem necessary, but the fact is that it can come in handy as you show things from a given character’s point of view. You …

“I Can Fix Him/Her” – Oh, Please, Don’t….

You cannot see me, but I facepalmed while writing that title. This post is less of a proscription or teaching moment and more of a rant, I think, in large part because I find the trope of I Can Change My Beloved (thanks, TVTropes, for the proper name) extremely annoying. More than that, however, I …

Reposted: Space Hookers Must Die!

This is a good, articulate post, readers. I highly recommend it! Space Hookers Must Die! July 16, 2023 Dr. Mauser Whether they were “Socialators” in Battlestar Galactica, or “Companions” in Firefly, or any number of other euphemisms, one SF trope that seems particularly insidious, especially in movies and TV, more-so than in literature, although it is …

Romantic Relationships – A Speculative Commentary

Last week we discussed love among characters. This ranged from brotherly love (philia), or the affection between friends who are or can be as close as brothers, to romantic love. I was not able to express all my thoughts on romantic pairings last week and thus this post will contain those ideas. Previously, we discussed …

Reposted: Hope Against Trope

I have to take a hiatus from my Writerly Sound Bites series this week, readers. Hopefully I'll be back with another one next week, but for the present, enjoy the great piece from J.D. Cowan in the link below. Be sure to check out my newsletter as well, or you might miss some exclusive content …

Reposted: Chasing Tropes

Check out this great article by Kit Sun Cheah, readers: Chasing Tropes People enjoy the exotic, but not too exotic. People enjoy the familiar, but not too familiar. Reconciling these twin desires is the overriding concern of the modern-day fiction writer. A story where everything is formulaic, from characters to plots to setting, is predictable and boring. A story …

A Unique Conceit (or Three) from Western Television

Gargoyles Retrospective | Disney's Dark Horse https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=hc7yQ4nX_8k Along with others in the Superversive movement, this author tends to highlight various writing techniques which are popularly seen in Japanese anime. Since writers in the Orient frequently make use of practices forgotten here in the West, this is only sensible. If one wishes to learn a craft, …