Why Five?
by Dennis Mathis
A new hyper-detailed neurological atlas identifies 862 different structures making up the human brain. What are the odds that only five of them are about detecting reality?
Archive for the ‘The Craft of Writing’ Category
The Perils of the Flood
by Gargi Mehra
When 2015 dawned upon us one year ago, I, like all reasonable writers, penned down certain resolutions. One of them was to test the oft-repeated advice doled out on most, if not all, writing websites – write a fixed quota of words every day.
Odyssey Online Classes Announced
This winter, writers can level up their skills in three key areas through live, intensive online classes offered by the Odyssey Writing Workshops Charitable Trust. Odyssey is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit known worldwide for offering some of the best in-person and online programs for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror.
Brood For Thought: On The Enduring Appeal Of The Moody Male Lead
by Rosalind Moran
The moody male lead is widespread throughout all genres, but it can be difficult to see why anybody would want to spend time with him. He’s brooding, exceedingly individualistic, melancholic, and disposed to hanging around outdoors during thunderstorms for no good reason beyond cultivating his mystique.
Horses Are Not Machines: On Writing the Steeds of Fantasy Fiction
by Rosalind Moran
A regrettable trend across much fantasy writing is that of a horse not really being a horse, but simply a plot device; a vehicle to help carry a story along. Horses, however, are not vehicles.
Teaching Stuff: Vast and Cool and Unsympathetic
by Richard Chwedyk
Here’s an assignment I give my students:
They receive a copy of the first chapter of H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
It is roughly 2,250 words.
I tell the students that Mr. Wells has just received a note from his editor. “Great stuff, Herbie, but you go on too long here. Cut this first chapter in half.”
The Future Began on a Tuesday
by Dennis Mathis
It was madness. The classes went on until the janitor came to turn out the lights, and we never seemed to get anywhere. This wasn’t a course about writing, it was about readers and how infinitely bone-headed they could be.
4 Pitfalls To Avoid When Crafting Trans Characters (SF&F Edition!)
By Ashley Lauren Rogers
There are numerous examples of classic science fiction and fantasy stories that deal with gender and what happens when we deviate from expectations of that gender. Include popular shows like Transparent, movies like The Danish Girl, and celebrities like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, and the politically polarizing Caitlin Jenner–and it’s no wonder that an increasing amount of fiction, including YA, is featuring trans and nonbinary characters. So how can writers–especially if they aren’t trans or nonbinary–create such characters?
Try Writing Comics
by Sara Ryan
Whatever your situation as a writer, I’d like to encourage you to try writing in the comics format. I keep using the word “format” to emphasize that, as advocates of comics have often been compelled to repeat, “It’s a format, not a genre.” Comics are not just about superheroes, or crime, or memoir, or humor, or romance, or journalism, or realism, or surrealism, or science fiction, or fantasy. Comics can be all those things and more.
Teaching Stuff: At Play With the Universe
by Richard J. Chwedyk
When I started “teaching” the Science Fiction Writing Workshop for undergrad and grad students at Columbia College Chicago, I had no idea what my priorities should be. There’s an obvious plethora of things you want to communicate – a million things you want your students to know. But I wondered: what’s the most important thing for your students to come away with?
Recent Comments