The Craft of Writing Archives - Page 18 of 34

Archive for the ‘The Craft of Writing’ Category

Guest Post: On Writing: Can You Do It Wrong?

by Cat Rambo

Are you putting words on the page? Then you are doing it right.

You may not be creating publishable words. You may not be creating amazing words. You may not be creating words you like. But by creating words, you are doing something actual, tangible, verifiable. And that puts you ahead of all the people who aren’t writing.

Variations of Villainy

by Nancy Fulda

Villains are challenging to write. Make them too heartless, and no one will find them believable. Make them too empathetic, and the audience will end up rooting for the wrong team. It can be difficult to create an antagonist with enough human virtue to be interesting and enough human foibles to be, well, villainous.

The Scientist Next Door: Or How to Approach Experts with Research Questions

by William Ledbetter

The email was short and straightforward. I identified myself as a science fiction writer who was curious about one aspect of their paper.

Overcoming Self-Doubt as a Writer

by Matthew Kressel

It’s become a cliché, the tortured writer beset by periods of crippling self-doubt. But things become clichés simply because they have been true for so many. Writing, for most people I know, is an experience of few victories and many small defeats.

Brain – Mental Ass Kickings = More Productive WriterBrain

by Barbara A. Barnett

So my takeaway from all this babbling is this: how you write isn’t always about getting words down. Sometimes it’s about looking at other aspects of your life and figuring out if there are changes you can make that will improve your ability to get those words down.

Guest Post: Using foreign language in your story – the balancing act!

by Juliette Wade

I love to use non-English languages in a story. To me, a foreign language behaves like a form of music – it creates mood and atmosphere for the readers who don’t understand it, and it further creates a layer of meaning for those readers who do understand it.

Guest Post: Using Foreign Language in Your Story –
The Balancing Act!

by Juliette Wade

I love to use non-English languages in a story. To me, a foreign language behaves like a form of music–it creates mood and atmosphere for the readers who don’t understand it, and it further creates a layer of meaning for those readers who do understand it.

Cascade Writers Workshop

Cascade Writers Workshop (July 17-20, 2014) is a 4-day event in Kent, WA, just south of Seattle, specializing in science fiction and fantasy writing. Guest speakers include editor Beth Meacham, agents Bree Ogden and Lisa Rodgers, publisher Patrick Swenson, authors Tina Connolly and Mark Teppo, Alma Alexander, K.c. Ball, David Levine, Mark Henry, Camille Alexa, Randy Henderson, Spencer Ellsworth, and more.

The Cure for Your Distraction Syndrome

I absolutely adore the Internet, but there’s no doubt it has made us more distracted than ever.I can see this in myself, and in watching everyone else around me: constant use of laptops, switching between browser tabs, checking things on iPhones, typing in a message here and there … we all do it.

Guest Post: Craft and Art

by Theodora Goss

When I teach writing, I teach craft. Art goes beyond craft, and has to do with what a writer, as an individual, brings to writing. Art is in the way Virginia Woolf explores consciousness. In the way George Orwell writes about politics.