Blake Snyder’s story beats have proved useful to me in the past in helping me structure a longer piece of fiction. In my current work in progress, I’m using them to structure a thriller of sorts. But I have been writing horror on the side too. Snyder’s structure doesn’t quite work for horror though. NotContinue reading “Scare the Cat”
Tag Archives: being a better writer
The Lies We Writers Tell Ourselves
Tale Foundry released the second in a new series of writing tips a few days ago while I was being rained on in Northumbria. Having watched it, the Tale Foundry group hits on several lies that have snuck into my thinking in the past What do you think of this video? Anything they should haveContinue reading “The Lies We Writers Tell Ourselves”
NaNoWriMo GO!
National Novel Writing Month – Everyone is talking about it on Twitter and Facebook. It is November and now everyone is scrambling to make 1,667 words a day. Everyone, that is, except me. And why not me? Because I am making NaNoWriMo work for me rather than really participating in the event like some panickedContinue reading “NaNoWriMo GO!”
Don’t get it right…
I used to have a bit of a problem. No, wait! Dn’t go. I promise this isn’t some sort of horrendous personal issue or pictures of my weird junk! I swear. No, my problem was I had to make sure every paragraph, every sentence, every damn word… was perfect. Editing was what other people didContinue reading “Don’t get it right…”
‘Polishing ‘
I am currently editing a novella for older children at the moment – a horror story with a mysterious curse. I am not an expert in revising and editing (or Turd Polishing, I call it), but I do know how t read up on it and apply what I have researched. The first useful pieceContinue reading “‘Polishing ‘”
Beaten by Robert Jordan
I have been working on my own fantasy tale now for a little while and I’m coming to some really fun and interesting parts with some female cast members. In my setting, women -especially lascivious women – are better at magic. For various reasons, the gods like women who are looser with their morals inContinue reading “Beaten by Robert Jordan”
What Will The Monsters Do When They Win?
In Shad’s review of an anime called Goblinslayer (I’ve never seen it), he talks about the necessity of showing how monstrous the monsters are in fantasy. The comment is part of a larger discussion on the way that various fantasy authors and writers have managed this in various media. From the entire video, which I’veContinue reading “What Will The Monsters Do When They Win?”
The Death of Smaug
In my brief skitter through YouTube at the weekend, I stumbled across this gem of a video. As some of my longer followers might remember, back in July, I reviewed the Hobbit. So, while still fresh in my mind, I came across this gem from Hello Future Me, an animation of the part of theContinue reading “The Death of Smaug”
How to make a map using Inkarnate
In my current work in progress, Kingdom of the Lion, I have been getting very involved in writing the tale of Pryad as he turns from a powerless street urchin from the dark alleys of Ur into something else much more powerful. But in doing so, I’ve found some not-at-all-useful historical maps of the FertileContinue reading “How to make a map using Inkarnate”
How I Created a Magic System in Six Easy Steps
As part of my avoidance strategies to prevent myself from finishing my manuscript in a reasonable amount of time – ahem – I mean as part of my research – I stumbled across an article form the Well-Storied blog. (link at the bottom of the post). The article was really well written and made meContinue reading “How I Created a Magic System in Six Easy Steps”
Imagine Erratically 