Reposted: 2 Skills You Can Learn From Writing in a Different Genre

Take a look at this interesting piece from Story Embers, readers! 2 SKILLS YOU CAN LEARN FROM WRITING IN A DIFFERENT GENRE January 9, 2023 Allison Raymond Everyone has favorite genres that they fill shelf after shelf and hour after hour with. One of mine is contemporary fantasy. Yours might be romance and historical fiction. …

Reposted: Oh John! Oh Marsha! Oh boy, is it a Romance?

Check out this excellent piece from the Mad Genius' Club, readers! Alma T. C. Boykin So, having failed to learn my lesson, today’s topic is romance as a genre. That is, keeping in mind that genre is about marketing. Romance as a term goes back to before romance as a genre, and romances used to …

Reposted: Comparison Isn’t Your Biggest Problem (And Other Ways Envy Makes Writing Miserable)

An interesting piece, readers: COMPARISON ISN’T YOUR BIGGEST PROBLEM (AND OTHER WAYS ENVY MAKES WRITING MISERABLE) January 2, 2023 Gabrielle Pollack The most helpful writing advice I learned this year came from the letters of a demon. C. S. Lewis published The Screwtape Letters serially in a newspaper called The Guardian. Eight decades later, I listened to the rumbling voice …

Reposted: Three Storytellers, Two Listeners, One Story

This is a fascinating article and story from Mr. Cheah, readers. Check it out! Three Storytellers, Two Listeners, One Story In his essay ‘The Counterfactual Dialectic’ in Pulp on Pulp, Misha Burnett discusses the use of dialectic to determine what is said to the reader, how it is said, and what the reader will take away …

Reposted – Worldbuilding: Life, Death, and Rituals

This is a good reflection for the New Year, readers. Check it out! Worldbuilding: Life, Death, and Rituals DECEMBER 31, 2022 ~ CROSSOVERCREATIVECHAOS So how do your world’s cultures handle life and death? And when I say rituals, I don’t just mean the kind of formal recognition of christenings and funerals. (Though those are more important to tying …

Reposted: Pregnant protagonists going to war

Ms. Monalisa Foster makes a good point here, readers. The fact that so many writers at present are ignoring it is more than a little bit disturbing: Link to article Pregnant protagonists going to war This morning I stumbled onto this and found myself in dire need to write about it because I too am …

Reposted – Business Musings: How Writers Fail Part 10: Blame

A worthy article to consider, future authors: Business Musings: How Writers Fail Part 10: Blame I spent most of the morning trying to start this post. It’s not like me to have trouble writing, particularly a nonfiction post, but I simply couldn’t do what I had planned. What I had planned was simple: Because of …

Reposted: Research for the Working Writer

This article is full of good advice, readers. Check it out! RESEARCH FOR THE WORKING WRITER “Help, I need sources!” Ah, the plea of the desperate student/grad-student/fiction writer in search of material or confirmation of some nugget, or a replacement for something that suddenly won’t work any more. Every so often the question arises about …

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: Campbell’s Hero’s Journey is Bunk

A good thought from John C. Wright, readers!   Campbell’s Hero’s Journey is Bunk We were discussing Campbell’s conception that a wheel-shaped pattern called the Hero’s Journey underpins folk tale and myth for all foundational heroic stories, across all cultures and generations. I admit to be deeply unimpressed with Joseph Campbell’s writing, after reading three …