Jul 17 2008
I read a story today that started with the sentence “This story has to begin with a small lesson in geography.” First, starting a story with a geography lesson will earn you an instant rejection (see question #8 under the fantasy subheading). But I was almost as annoyed by the self-referential “this story.” When you remind the reader he’s reading a book, it’s harder for him to immerse himself in the fantasy.
Jul 17 2008
Cadet Davis reviews and revises the titles of 30 manuscripts submitted to a writing workshop. This will help you evaluate and improve your titles.
Above Average
Jul 16 2008
This article gives nine tips to writing a title that grips readers and sells your book.
1. Tell us enough about the book to make us want to read it.This is what separates bland, forgettable titles like The Dragon from classics like His Majesty’s Dragon. The more we can surmise about the plot, the better.
2. Do not use imaginary place names.Readers haven’t heard of Asgardia, Lukawanda, or whatever your fictional kingdom or city is called.Your invented words won’t interest us because they don’t mean anything to us.I think the place names most appealing to prospective readers are those that use English words, like the Temple of Doom. We can guess what a temple of doom is.
Continue Reading »
Jul 16 2008
Cadet Davis reviews and revises the titles of 30 manuscripts submitted to a writing workshop. This will help you evaluate and improve your titles.
Above Average
Jul 15 2008
Just because a character has an accent doesn’t mean he has to ruin all of his scenes. This article describes how to keep your characters from sounding like Hagrid.
Jul 14 2008
When an interjection like “well” starts a sentence, it’s usually wasted space. If you start sentences with any of these common offenders, double-check to make sure that they actually contribute something to the sentence. Otherwise, please remove them.
Jul 14 2008
Don’t have your characters spend too much time musing about events that have already happened in the story.
When characters are preoccupied with something that’s already happened, the author has probably lost track of where the story is going. You can give your story forward momentum by drawing our attention to what’s just around the corner. If someone tried to kill the protagonist yesterday, we will care more about what the assassins are planning for tomorrow than what the character thinks about the attack today.
If you are interested in building on what has already happened in the story, it will probably be more effective to try to have your characters investigate the mystery. But an investigation is very different than just musing with your friends and confidantes. An investigation will add evidence, either by looking for clues or trying to get witnesses to talk. Investigations are superior to musing because the search for information adds more to the story than just talking about what has already happened. (There’s also more potential for conflict, particularly if someone’s trying to sabotage the search).
Here are a few common scenarios that frequently lead to characters musing about the past.
Jul 14 2008
The Associated Press describes a California town that is so xenophobic that it has a vigilante “Border Patrol” tear down all the road signs that might help motorists find it. What a delightfully gruesome detail. Would you like a writing assignment? Write a detail that describes a fundamental flaw of a place or character. The more flavor, the better.
Jul 11 2008
The authors that try to present political or religious opinions usually confuse their opinions with insights. How is your message different from what people have already heard about abortion? For example, your readers have already heard many people chant “abortion is good” and “abortion is bad.” Is your story just another voice in the chorus or will it actually add something? Why will anyone care about your opinion? Do you have any unique perspective on the subject material? Do you have relevant professional or scholarly experience? Are you personally affected by the issue? Etc.
Jul 11 2008
Authors shouldn’t tell cue their readers to laugh. Consider the following comedic exchange. “What’s the difference between the Yankees bullpen and Pizza Hut?” asked John. Mary shrugged. “Pizza Hut delivers,” said John. They laughed. “They laughed” cues the readers to laugh at John’s joke.
That’s insulting to your readers. If your comedy is effective, readers will know when to laugh. Reminding them to laugh at something that wasn’t funny to them will just draw their attention to ineffective writing.
Here are some situations that are usually examples of laugh-tracking:
Jul 11 2008
According to TV Tropes, the CSI Effect is “the growing tendency of juries to refuse to convict if the prosecution fails to provide comprehensive crime scene analysis, even in trivial cases,” because of the influence of forensic crime scene dramas. Now, prosecutors sometimes try to weed out jurors that have watched CSI. That’s where conversations like this one come from…
Prosecutor: Have you ever watched CSI before?
Prospective Juror: Yes.
Prosecutor: Do you think crime scene investigation really works like that?
Jul 11 2008
Although I think the name comes off as a kitschy attempt at Real Ultimate Power, ultimately I think Dr. McNinja is far superior to RUP. Plus, because McNinja is a webcomic, it has graphics. Suitably badass graphics, of course.
Jul 10 2008
Gimmicky writing is when a writer tries something “new” that annoys readers, rather than actually giving a better reading experience.
Jul 10 2008
Jul 09 2008
Jul 08 2008
Jul 07 2008
One common superhero archetype is the national paragon, a hero designed to represent a country, ethnic group or other group of people. The most obvious example is Captain America, but the list is long. For example, Hadji from Johnny Quest exists only to charm snakes and hack computers. (Also, have I mentioned that “haji” is an ethnic slur?)
Here is a list of potential problems with using national paragons…
Jul 05 2008
Reviewer: I like your work, but I think that [some aspect of your writing] is flawed.
Author: Oh, that? I meant to do that.
Reviewer: Ahh… do you think you could fix it?
Author: But that would ruin the style of the piece!
Deliberately inflicting substandard writing on your story for “stylistic” or “literary” purposes is usually a prelude to rejection. If your reviewers were able to discern that it was either stylish or literary, they wouldn’t be complaining about it.
Here are a few areas that are especially prone to intentionally bad writing…
Jul 05 2008
The Hellboy Quote Generator is out, although it has been technically unreliable. On a comedy scale of 1 to 10, I’d give this a 5: amusing but uneven. It’s a well-done piece of viral advertising, though. (“Let me put this to you as delicately as I can.” *BANG*)
Jul 04 2008
Have a happy 4th of July!
FIRST COMIC — PREVIOUS COMIC — NEXT COMIC
FIRST COMIC — PREVIOUS COMIC — NEXT COMIC
Jul 03 2008
I submitted a potential rewrite of our introduction to the Critters Writing Workshop. It’s very short (2 pages) and I expect that we’ll eventually expand it to about 5. Currently, it’s rated PG-13 for adult language, but we’re considering modifying it to PG.
Jul 03 2008
Like The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam, we’ve written a list of questions to help you identify problems with your writing. Continue Reading »
Jul 03 2008
I did a Google search for “bad superhero writing” and Superhero Nation was the top result. Screw you, Google!
[B. Mac] Speaking of Google, it decided to celebrate the 4th of July on its front-page today, which is slightly unexpected because instead of national holidays, they usually focus on holidays like Earth Day that are equally unimportant everywhere.
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