He had a lighting bolt scar on his head, with messy hair and thick glasses fixed in the middle with sellotape. I didn’t look in a book or online for that description, I drew it from my memory whole as a description on Harry Potter. When you think about it, that is pretty amazing. IContinue reading “How J K Rowling Describes a Character”
Tag Archives: being a better writer
An Essay of Consequence
Cluck the image below and read the article – September Fawkes has done an excellent job in this article about stakes in scenes and fiction. Reading it, I felt intense jealousy over the fact that I hadn’t thought of it first. The way she has parsed the ideas has made me reevaluate my own worksContinue reading “An Essay of Consequence”
A Primer for World Building Basics
World building is one of the essential skills of a fantasy writer. And yet, it can often cause so many problems: from issues with overwriting the world to inconsistent construction to terrible tropes in world building. I pulled five videos from various YouTube channels that I have found to be useful in not just understandingContinue reading “A Primer for World Building Basics”
I forgot to add Basil!
I saw this today and, having just finished the first draft of a children’s horror novella, it did make me smile. I miss every single criterion from this graphic: my hero is very flawed, this journey is less than heroic, my antagonist isn’t ruthless – well, not totally amoral, and I apparently forgot to includeContinue reading “I forgot to add Basil!”
Subtext
Why is it so hard? When I am writing a piece of fiction, one of the things I find most difficult is drafting in the subtext. A character wants something, they ask for it. A character thinks something, they show or say it. I have always thought this problem lies with my straight-forward view andContinue reading “Subtext”
High Art?
WARNING: The last five mins of this video is an advert for a VPN platform. I skipped them. As I usually do. Apologies if you watch it by mistake! WARNING 2: Read on – I’m not just linking the video with no consideration or critique! Are games an art-form with the same credibility as NovelsContinue reading “High Art?”
Wise words!
Neil Gaiman is among my favourite authors for his fluid style and his amazing body of work – American Gods, the Graveyard Book and others being personal favourites. I have seen this image doing the rounds on Facebook and on Twitter and thought I’d share what those rules mean for me. 1. Write Wait… Isn’tContinue reading “Wise words!”
Imagine Erratically 