A few months ago, I was linked to a video about original thinkers by organisational psychologist, Adam Grant. and the habits of people he calls originals. It’s a very interesting video and I highly recommend watching it, but one of the points that he makes is about embracing the ...
Embracing procrastination
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Jan. 18, 2019Writing Mental Illness (Part 1)
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Jan. 12, 2019
Writing a character with mental illness can be a very tricky thing. Writers usually go for the extremely rare, exotic and spectacular: multiple personality disorders, extreme manifestations of psychopathy or sociopathy, high functioning autism with that ever alluring ‘savant’ magic going for the character, bombastically spectacular schizophrenia… in many ways ...
Exposition - Just the tip
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Jan. 11, 2019
In a nutshell, exposition is a big ole mound of information that the author wants the reader to know before they move on in the plot. It often gets a bad rap but that is usually due to it being used incorrectly. There is definitely a place for exposition so ...
Following through on your NY goals
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Jan. 4, 2019
If you are like 92.4% of people at the beginning of the New Year (not a factual number mind you), you have sat down with a shine in your eye to set about making a list of goals to achieve in 2019. I know I have. So far there ...
Convergent Creation Part 2
Amelius at 12:21PM, Dec. 16, 2018
Last weekend we discussed that strange phenomenon of independent creation, where there's more than a passing resemblance to another work but it's not a case of plagiarism. Interestingly, not long after I posted that I saw not one but two instances of independent creation being brought up (though ...
Purpose of subplots
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Dec. 14, 2018
Last week, we looked at ways to prevent the middle of your story from sagging. One of those suggestions was using a subplot or two to help flesh out both the world and characters of your story.
For those of you who are a bit confused as to what a ...
Strong Women, Strong Men
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Dec. 8, 2018
A ton of things have been written about “strong female characters”- how we need them in narratives, and what it means to have them in a creative work's cast. Tons of discussions and social media wars have been waged on what it is that makes a female character strong ...
When the middle of your story sucks
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Dec. 7, 2018
When creating a story, either for comics or novels, the easiest parts to write are usually the beginnings and ends because hell ,they’re the fun bits right? You burst out of the gate, ready and raring to go, your gaze on that sweet, sweet finale but there’s a ...
Playing favourites
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Nov. 30, 2018
I have favourite characters. There, I said it.
Although I would love to think that I love them equally, and on some level there is truth to that, there are a few I continually come back to and just want to get into them more. Now, just because they are ...
Amanda Palmer and the Fraud Police
Emma_Clare at 12:00AM, Nov. 23, 2018
In my quest to improve myself by reading more than one book this year, I made a point to try and finish one that was given to me last Christmas, (I think anyway). Namely, Amanda Palmer’s, The Art of Asking. There was a passage in there that really jumped ...