Well, is later than I planned, but it is still the 30th of October, (PST), so I'm going to finish my posts for "Characters in Costume." And next blogfest, I won't arrange a birthday party for one of the days of the event. 🙂 We looked at the minimalist and medium approaches to describing s … Continue reading Describing a Memorable Character: Miss Havisham
Tag: Details
When writing a book, but particularly when writing fantasy, authors seem to run into the problem of too much details. They describe the life out of a scene, creating paragraphs of concrete details about what a place sounds like, smells like, tastes like, until the plot is put to one side and we are invited … Continue reading The Power of Analogy
Every fictional novel not set in contemporary times requires world-building. You might be able to "cheat," as it were, and do it via extensive research about what a past time period was like, rather than creating a brand new realm, but the situation is similar. Either way, the details are what sets your story apart. … Continue reading The Secrets to World-Building #amwriting #atozchallenge
Violence has always had its place in stories. In early religious writings, myths, and legends, you can find enough murders, robberies, and assaults to keep a full time police force busy for years. However, how the violence is handled has varied. Sometimes it’s gorily descriptive; sometimes dismissively (or discreetly) vague. Many genres currently gravitate towards … Continue reading Three Ways to Deal with Violence in Books
In the format of a free, non-traditional critique, Writing That Scene examines the fundamentals of what it takes to make a scene powerful and memorable for readers. The opinion expressed is my own, and other readers’ opinions may differ. The goal is to provide an opportunity for authors to learn from each other and to … Continue reading Writing That Scene: Lilith
Writers don’t necessarily read like other people. Many of us notice little things—plot devices, grammar errors, characterization flaws—that other readers don’t, and they bug us, because we’ve sensitized ourselves to what good writing reads like. We get labeled as snobs for it, sometimes, but I think it’s part of being a writer. (I explained more … Continue reading The Benefits of Reading Like A Writer
In the format of a non-traditional critique, Writing that Scene examines the fundamentals of what it takes to capably convey a scene to one’s readers. The opinion expressed is my own, and other readers’ opinions may and will differ. This week, we’ll finish looking at A House to Let, a short story project by Charles … Continue reading Writing That Scene: A House to Let, Part Four
Fudge-like. Chewy, in an oatmeal-chocolate-peanut butter way, smooth and cool from the metal pan and waxed paper with a textured top. Exposed aggregate that you can eat. Over the past few months, I’ve been trying to perfect my refrigerator cookie recipe (or No-Bakes). My family’s been working on it for years: my cousin took home … Continue reading Lessons Learned from Refrigerator Cookies
I just finished a recently-published historical fiction novel, set in England in the time of Jane Austen and most of Georgette Heyer’s books. It had a great premise, but the execution was…flawed. And not for glaring historical flaws. The costumes, the plot events, and the characters had a studied feel to them. I felt like … Continue reading Back When We Still Cared
Andrea Lundgren 