Fantasy, science-fiction, and other stuff
Jami Gold, paranormal and urban fantasy author, has a great post about Head Hopping, and why it is bad. Give it a read.
If the POV is unclear or changes too frequently, the reader doesn’t form as strong of a connection to the characters.
Jami has an amazing author blog, with over 600 posts on the writing craft. Check it out when you have an afternoon to burn.
So, you may seen the Twitter post making it’s way around claiming there are rules about language we didn’t know we knew. It’s from the book, The Elements of Eloquence, by Mark Forsyth.
Here is a BBC article on the viral post, and here is the paragraph in question:
Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.
Stolen from Elmore Leonard’s website directly:
“My most important rule is one that sums up the ten. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”
I sat down with J Bryan Jones to join his Coffee House Writer’s Group Podcast to discuss how to critique in a critique group.
It was a fantastic experience. J’s amazing and we ended up chatting for another hour afterwards on fantasy and science fiction, which could have filled another podcast easily.
(We had to stop recording for a moment because I couldn’t get Ernest Hemingway’s name to escape my brain. Super embarrassing for a writer type person. See if you can spot the cut.)
Mentioned in the Podcast:
Fantasy novels need rules. For fantasy, the big one is “How does magic work?”
That question literally supplied the plot of my first two novels. And the one I’m working on now.
Someone at Gizmodo has assembled a list for us: Rules of Magic.
TV Tropes is your friend, writer-type people. If you want to see the tropes and clichés of your genre laid bare, this is the place to go. Also, if you have several hours to spend on the internet.
Just got name-dropped in the Coffee House Writers Group podcast with Scott McClelland.
The Coffee House Writers Group is a writers group in the Los Angeles area designed to support writers through critique groups, presentations, and social events. I go to their Wednesday Meetup in Long Beach, CA.
Beggar’s Crossing has been released by the Coffee House Writer’s Group, featuring fourteen short stories centering on a mysterious Arizona ghost town known only as Beggar’s Crossing.
You can find my first published short story “Tassels and Twins,” along with one of my writer buddy’s (Cory Rasmussen, with “The Space Between the Wind”).
It’s available at Amazon or wherever fine marmosets are sold.
