Surfing the Network – Part One
Sandra Norval
Bring to mind any fantasy journey and consider what made it successful. Many a traveller sets off believing that he will do it alone with no need to call upon…
Writing
Cutting the Flab: Eliminate Extraneous Words
Amy Rose Davis
As a marketing writer and freelance copywriter, I spent several years trimming sentences and blurbs to fit in newspaper ads and on postcards, brochures, and other marketing collateral. Then I…
The “Villain” Spectrum: Creating a Layered Antagonist
I’m sure everyone remembers the scene in the first Shrek movie where Shrek tells Donkey that “ogres are like onions” because they have layers. Donkey wants to know why they…
Revisions
Daniel D Jones
You type the final words, then push yourself back from the keyboard and heave a deep sigh. You’ve finished. You’ve written a novel. It’s all there, all down in neat…
Non-Human Antagonists
I’ve spent several weeks talking about heroes, antiheroes, and villains, and how to define them, so I think it’s time to apply the knowledge a little. But first, I want…
Killing Mary Sue
Back at the beginning of 2009, I made a momentous decision. I began to take my writing seriously. I’d spent the Christmas period having a complete break from all the…
Strengthen Your Prose: Distancing Verbs
For the next few articles on my “writing craft” weeks, I’m going to talk about some of the ways to improve your writing by eliminating words and phrases that weaken…
Avoid Rejection: Five Ways to Polish Your Manuscript
Lady Rosalie Skinner
One: Let It Sit Like a vintage port, your writing can improve with maturity. Sounds odd and hardly proactive, but leaving your completed manuscript to sit for a while can…
Antihero vs. Villain
I was pleased to see so much discussion around my posts about heroes and the hero spectrum. After quite a bit more thought and research, I put together one more…
Run-ons, Fuses, and Comma Splices
Two weeks ago, I wrote about sentence fragments and how they can add punch and style to your writing. Today, we’ll look at another common writing error: The run-on (fused)…
Pick a Genre and STICK with It
Jamie Provencher
About the time characters begin rifling through your brain, there is usually some sort of story that is following them. While it maybe something as simple as Character X is…
Keeping Fantasy Fresh – Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder
Ben Godby
In case you missed part one of this series you can find it here. And if you missed part two of this series you can find it here. In his…