I’ve recently finished The New Magic by Joseph Malik (review to come soon — but his first book, Dragon’s Trail, was half of what prompted me to start writing advice on writing action scenes, as an example of how to do them right). Anyway. You often hear the advice about writing fight scenes to “use […]
Writer Tip
All in a Name: Romans, Russians, and Fantasy
A character’s name will be the trait most often referred to in a book, so today I’d like to talk about historical and fantastical names, as well as literary usage. We’d start with a quick review of some interesting naming conventions from history (Romans, duh, but also others), then touch on fantasy and science fiction […]
Writing Process (or, how to make sure the muse works for you)
On several occasions recently (lecturing writing groups and chatting online) I was asked about my writing process, about anything from using pen and paper vs typing to ideation. And it hit me that a lot of it is inter-connected. I’ve talked about the tools I use and where I sit on the plotting-vs-pantsing scale, but […]
The Art and Craft of Writing (or, the worst and best advice you’ll ever get as an author)
I’ve recently been invited to talk to a few writing groups, about the experience of transitioning from a reader, to a budding writer, to a published author. This column comes as a result of thinking about that journey, from the advice I gave and the questions I answered, plus a few interesting discoveries on the […]
Milestones (or, the art of blogging as a key to a successful author platform)
In a twist that should surprise no one, last week’s post was the 200th post on my blog — and that milestone went past to the sound of crickets. I thought I’d take a moment to speak about milestones (besides putting in a big, actual, stone at the side of the road — for that […]
More from FutureLearn: Classics and Literary
I’ve mentioned FutureLearn before, as an excellent resource for no-stress, free-time further education. I’ve had the chance to do some more courses over the past few months, and thought I’d share my experience. Classics The first course I’ve done at FutureLearn was about a complete virtual model of ancient Rome (see here). It was an […]
Conversations in My Head: Things I’ve Learnt from Reading
Whenever I’m reading a book, I have this silent conversation with the author in my head. This is particularly true for indie authors I’m reviewing, but most authors are ‘targeted’. Sometimes, there are more people in my head. So if you’re feeling like someone is walking on your grave, it might be me, reading your […]
How to Murder. (Your darlings.) (In prose.)
We’ve all heard the advice to writers to “murder your darlings”. While I’ve been killing characters in entertainingly gruesome ways, the advice relates to prose. I’ve recently went through an extensive exercise of tightening my prose (for a particular submission), and thought I’d share my experience and lessons I’ve learned — both good and bad, […]
Screenwriting
In my continual quest to improve my writing, I’ve taken a look at screenwriting. (It has nothing to do with a possible deal for a movie adaptation of Murder In Absentia, about which I’m legally not allowed to talk just yet). Screenwriting is an interesting medium of storytelling, one with both similarities and differences to […]
Rory’s Story Cubes
A review of something other than books (for a change) but that is still intimately related to storytelling and storytellers. I’ve picked up a set of Rory’s Story Cubes (specifically, the orange “Original” set and the green “Voyages” set) a few years a ago as something to do with my daughters. This was before I […]
