Category: The Process of Writing
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A different kind of plot: the Heroine’s Journey
The other night I was reading meta analysis on season seven of Supernatural (because that’s what good little grad students do instead of their homework), when I learned something entirely new. The analyzer kept referencing the Heroine’s Journey– and honestly, my eyes glazed right past it. After all, this was…
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A tip from the internet
Meandering through the internet, I found a pair of images that really struck me. I’ll let them speak for themselves: The difference between the first and the second is staggering. One is vivid and evocative, the other is silly– and makes a striking point. These comparisons are so overused (so…
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The perils and potentials of Cartesian madness
The Scenario A while back I was working on a story with Kya, and I kept hitting a roadblock with one character in particular. She was an ordinary teenager tossed into a magical world. Unfortunately, she was also more grounded than she was practical. Looking at the magic, she started…
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Nitpicking Narrators – Part II: He gazed into the sunset
While I’m busy with grad school, I’ll be replaying some of the most-read posts from my old blog. Some people instantly gravitate to one particular narrative style. The story they’re writing just naturally lends itself to one Point of View (POV) in particular. After all, who would want to read…
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Writing Exercise: Gender Bender
I’ve heard a lot of people say gender doesn’t matter– that we are all equal in soul and under the skin– and I’m not arguing that, with or against. But it’s undeniable that society changes our expectations of how men and women look, think and behave, and how they should…
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Writer Woes: An abundance of details
This is the second part of my response to this blog post, asking about writing woes. I write fantasy. And because it isn’t rooted in our world, that means I have spent a whole lot of time worldbuilding. My current WIP deals with the interaction of three separate countries, as…
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Writer Woes: The right path up the mountain
I was reading this blog post, which asked, “what are your biggest writer woes?” One of my biggest– the one that’s currently got me beating my head against a wall– is what I like to think of as finding the right path up the mountain. Our Hero has made her…
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Writing Exercise: Out of Costume
Two of your characters, who are the most bitter of enemies most of the time, unwittingly sit down and have a chat. Maybe they met up on Chat Roulette (is that even a thing anymore?), maybe they’re a superhero and supervillain who ran into each other out of costume. Whatever…
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People Watching
I was digging through some old notebooks this evening when I found a page of People Watching. You can’t ever hear enough about this: writers, artists, filmmakers– no matter what your brand of creativity, it’s imperative that you go out and actually look at people. I’m not talking about the…
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Changing the background
If you look at the majority of non-modern fantasy, be it medieval, pseudo-victorian, what have you, you’ll notice a pattern: everybody’s white and straight. If genderqueer or homosexuality is brought up, it’s with a heaping helping of homophobia and transphobia; if people of color are included, you can expect to…
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