Aug
02
2008
I provide advice about
how to write novels, comic books and graphic novels. Most of my content applies to fiction-writing in general, but I also provide
articles specifically about superhero stories.
When you try to sell your work to a publisher or readers, please do not use the word “parody” interchangeably with “comedy.” A parody imitates the style or plays on the conventions of an author/genre /work to make fun of it. Most comedies are not parodies. There are two common reasons that authors may misuse the word parody…
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Aug
02
2008
A character strikes a pose by doing anything that’s primarily designed to give readers an interesting visual. Unlike well-executed visuals, poses are usually distracting and rarely add anything like character development or immersion to the story. It’s usually more effective to rewrite the visual to show us something about the character. For example, a character that admires his weapon is striking a pose because he’s not telling us anything interesting about himself. You could fix that by having the character run his finger across the blade to test its sharpness. That helps develop the character as a competent and tough swordsman. In contrast, someone who just admires the weapon probably fails to show any of his own traits and is offering a visual only for its own sake.
Aug
02
2008
I found these two articles on writing male speech and female speech quite useful.