Archive for the ‘Writing Technique’ Category

Teaching Stuff: Increasing the Inclusion

by Richard J. Chwedyk

Theodore Sturgeon once wrote this, emphatically, honestly, and truly: “One should write fiction carefully and consciously to someone, as one writes a letter; and the selection of that someone is the single most important skill that a writer can develop.”

10 Reasons to Romanticize the Donkey

by Barbara E. Hill

Because of this diminutive rose-colored darling I learned a lot about life, relationships, and especially about writing.

“But… wait, what? Writing?” you ask. “A donkey taught you about writing?”

Building Worlds with SFWA

by Jeffe Kennedy

It’s apropos that “Lonen’s War,” book one in my Fantasy Romance series, “Sorcerous Moons,” is featured in the first SFWA Fantasy StoryBundle. That’s because the fantastically smart and helpful folks in SFWA helped me out with a worldbuilding challenge.

The Voodoo of Research

by Tim Susman

Since it’s fall and ghosts are in the air, I thought it might be a good time to talk about my research into vodou/voodoo, the religion and spiritual practices that coalesced on Haiti among the African slaves there and spread to America, most commonly and famously in New Orleans (for the purposes of this article, I use “vodou” to refer to the Haitian religion and “voodoo” to refer to the New Orleans practices).

On Writing of a Different Culture

by Douglas Smith

Eventually, I came to understand these stories were transcribed from versions people remembered being told when they were young or used to tell their children. Story telling was an oral tradition.

Difference of Mind

by Erica Satifka

According to the World Health Organization, one out of every four people will be affected by mental illness at some point in their lives. Considering this, it’s important to not only feature characters with mental illness prominently in one’s writing, but to treat the subject with sensitivity and accuracy.

How to Write with a Co-author

by Stewart C Baker

Fiction writing is often presented as an intensely solitary pursuit, but look at the end of a published novel some time and you’ll see the author thank at least a dozen people for their help. And then there’s co-authoring…

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?