Recent content by CicadaGrrl

Oh, I'm books behind my ideas. The ones I think are tenable. Of course they have folders and I jot notes into them every now and then, but I'm in the second book of a trilogy at the moment. Actually, my book coming out on Feb 15, Shining in Darkness[/I], the culture has a huge focus on a...

Wow. The site left my shit but edited out my ****. Weird.

I grew up titling short chapters as in, Chapter 1: A Heart of Flames. I used the kernel of truth in the chapter I want to stay focused on. They didn't give anything away, but were the sort of often pithy, slides of association that by the time the reader finished the chapter, they knew why...

Italics for thoughts are extremely common and have been for decades. Personally, I dislike them. You are already in the character's pov. The emotions, thoughts, etc. are entirely what you are writing. You can't even promise the reader this person is reliable. So if you are already there...

I have an approximate 5-10 page rule. I usually start with fast paced conversation that gives at least some grasp of the characters and I feel immediately engages readers with character, but then it slams into action--if not sheer violence, at least obvious magic or the such. Usually after the...

I've actually tried writing a fantasy novel with no violence. Magic, but no violence. My writing group kept telling me it had no plot or direction. Eventually I got sick of this type of feedback and set it aside. Beauty by Robin McKinley. The Beast threatens violence, but never is actually...

Scheharazad method (and I know I killed that spelling): I find someone who is interested in my writing. Luckily, I have a lot. Draft your best friend, your parents, your sibling, your writer partner, your mailman--whoever. At the end of the writing day, call or drop by on this person. Read...

ascanius--Congrats!!!!!! What you have is a nearly finished first draft. It's weird. Everything keeps changing. And you hate it with a fiery passion. You are a writer! Now go on being a writer and finish it. That's what writers do. We hate what we do as much of the time as anyone else...

Pretty much everything is cliché. What matters is how you tell what you are telling, not what you are telling. The only way that it matters the what is that bullying is a major, serious issue in school. It's physical and emotional terrorism. It may be twenty or thirty years later, but all...

The elf extermination factor is absolutely fascinating. That is a great take. I don't know much about bio glowing biology. Biology at all. I'm not sure that you need to justify why or how a dragon glows or the glowing fades. They already breathe fire and are dragons in a land with elves...

I use my nickname that everyone calls me by for my writing for a very simple reason: I am a secondary teacher. We can be subjected to some pretty rough background checks, and I understand some of it. But that my fantasy can get a little gritty and sexy really shouldn't be material to whether...

A fifth of tequila helps. No, seriously. Read Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird. I would pay particular attention to "Writing Shitty First Drafts" and "Bird by Bird". You could just read these two chapters to start with if you are short on time. I use them a lot in my classes when I am introducing...

Depends on my books, but in general, evil wants something. What makes them evil are what they are willing to do to get that. Are they willing to kill? Extinguish races? What? Occassionally, Evil characters are like the Joker--Chaos. Loki. The trickster. It doesn't matter why. Maybe it...

I almost always listen to music when I write. Playlists. But a little different. The Decemberists. Nikki Menaj. Talking Heads. Dar Williams. I'm all for music in books. The series I'm working on right now (first published! Weaver's Web!) involves a sidhe so of course there is music...

If you stick a gun above the fireplace in the first act, better have someone fire it by the third, right? I have moved from charging right into books to being a methodical planner. Everything I say had better be going somewhere. That doesn't mean it is all classic "plot". Some of it is very...