Many beginner writers think that “editing” means running spell check, grammar check, changing a few words, and then calling it a day.
But that couldn’t be further from the truth!
Editing is a long, long road paved with blood, tears and sweat.
Category: Cute
This pig isn’t going to be slaughtered by Farmer Chuckins.
This pig has a plan.
And it involves the New Year’s countdown and a rocket ship.
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been working with some awesome viewers to put together a short story/poem anthology based around the theme of: “A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas.”
And now, it’s here!
Are you ready to dig into eight stories that span the spectrum of cute to grimdark, all speculating what the season looks like after the end of the world?
Writing fantasy, especially fantasy that takes place in a different world, is extremely difficult. You have to walk the fine line between giving the reader enough detail to see the world, but not so much that you overwhelm them.
Thankfully there are lots of authors who have already done this extremely well, whose works we can look at! And one such example is A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge.
Prologues are often traps for beginner writers. They think that they can dump a lot of information at the reader, but it’s okay because it’s a prologue.
Unfortunately that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Thankfully there are good examples of prologues out there. One example is at the beginning of Leviathan Wakes by James Corey.
For the vast majority of stories, the main character doesn’t die at the end.
So then why do we fear for the character’s death anyway? And how can we make sure we do it to readers of our own stories?
Let’s find out!
Sometimes you gotta get the writing juices flowing with a good, random opening sentence. But coming up with a random sentence is harder than it seems.
So why not use the 7th sentence on the 7th page of a nearby book, and then write a 7-line story that starts with it?
Coming up with a name for a character in your story is like choosing a name for your child… only harder.
When you come up with a name for your kid, they don’t have a personality yet. No matter what name you pick, they’ll “grow into” it.
However, characters in stories already have personalities, and having the wrong name for your character can cause a mess. For example, writing a story about a modern-day high school where kids are named “Pigwilliam” and “Starex” isn’t going to fly, and neither will having an evil villain whose name is “Flower” (unless you’re trying to be funny).
So how do you create the perfect name? I’m glad you asked!
When you sit down and really think about it, the story of the Cat in the Hat makes very little sense.
Reading is just as important in becoming a better writer as writing. A chef who never eats good food will never cook good food, an architect who never examines good buildings will never design good buildings, and a writer who never reads good books will never write good books.
There are so many benefits from reading. You not only increase your vocabulary and phraseology, your tools in your arsenal when doing your own writing, but you also get to see how good stories are written. How do they begin? How do they get you invested? How do they describe things in an interesting way?
And one book does all that particularly well: Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher.