What’s your Word Budget?
Master of short stories Mary Robinette Kowal delivered a guest lecture for Sanderson’s 2020 course which raised the interesting question: […]
Writing
Posts on the craft of writing
Thirty-eight Elements of Story
While I don’t use Fictionary‘s software tool itself, I’ve learned to construct the grandmother of spreadsheets to track their editing
Writing to Market
Writing to Market means writing types of books that are known to sell well. For an author that means finding
The Fantasy Fiction Challenge
About this time last year, I received the fantasy fiction challenge during an online discussion about self publishing and the
The Legacy of the Rings
What I call Tolkein’s Legacy of the Rings doesn’t kick-start the fantasy genre. It originates in the roots of story
In Medias Res
‘Starting the story in the middle’: that’s the Latin term in medias res. The Greek playwrights understood it well. Don’t
Seven Elements of Story Structure
Another way to think about plot is Joe Nassise’s Seven Elements of Story Structure. Last seen at [2022’s] Plot Forest
Kurt Vonnegut on Drama
From a talk in New York, Kurt Vonnegut on drama explained why people have such a need for drama in
Eliminate the Is-Was Verbs
Amid the writing advice about weak verbs and passive voice, there is also a directive to eliminate the is-was verbs.
Ten-step Fictional Empire-builders’ Checklist
What goes onto our fictional empire-builders’ checklist? This is where essential world-building for culture and setting begins. In the current