Overpriced Writing Advice
Where you can learn the stuff I paid thousands of dollars to have taught to me, for free.
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(Or "4 Steps To Figuring Out The Point To Your Story")
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Those who have read enough of my fics know that I like Dark fic. I find extrapolating from canon, making it more dramatic and dangerous, to be an interesting challenge.
Yet Dark fic is also one of the most commonly derided sub-genres of fanfic, because so many stories do it so badly. For today’s blog post, I’d like to discuss one of my favorite types of fanfiction: what separates the good from the bad, and how those ideas can be seen in other types of fiction as well.
Delete, cut, backspace, empty recycle bin. However it happens, deleting things is one of the most important and difficult parts of writing. Choosing to throw away a piece of work can often be like ripping off a band-aid, or in the worst cases, like putting down a pet. One of the most dangerous things an author can do is to never delete anything. This applies to everything from individual words to entire ideas and concepts.
One of the strange things about fanfiction is that its characters are premade. There is often no need to create original characters, because the show provides so many for authors to utilize. But all characters use the same building blocks. Writing a character in fanfiction is not that different from making characters of your own. For today’s post about writing, I’d like to discuss one of the fundamental building blocks of character: the archetype.
For a breakdown of the format, don't forget to check the first entry.
Title: Of Angels
Author: PaulAsaran
Short summary: Angel Bunny learns to write from Twilight, for a reason that quickly becomes obvious. Told through letters/written conversations.
For today’s critique, I thought I would try something different. Rather than reading a new story, I took a story I had previously “reviewed” (by leaving a comment on it), and then rework that comment into a proper critique.
Descriptive prose can take many forms:
She was a hot glass of milk drank by a lactose-intolerant pony just before bed. A hot oven whose door you dared not open.
Overpriced Writing Advice
Where you can learn the stuff I paid thousands of dollars to have taught to me, for free.
...Or In This Case, I Share The Free Stuff I Find - Pt. 5
(AKA "Blog share: How Do Great Authors Use Emotion In Their Books?")
Welcome back to another Monday installment of our summer special! That’s right, it’s Being a Better Writer‘s Summer of Cliche Writing Advice! It’s not over yet! We’ve still got a few weeks (and cliche topics) left.