Recent content by The Dark One

Just about every movie Robin Williams was ever in... inspiring individual destroyed by the conservative system. They were usually good movies but it gets a bit wearying. I loved the Patch Adams bit on Family Guy when Patch is performing in the ward and all the kids are switching off their life...

While on the surface a swashbuckling, white knuckle ride, my most recent novel (sci-fi) is also a satire on the ravages of psychopathic leadership. No-one would touch it if it said that in the blurb.

You also have to be brave and unflinching depending on what your theme / subtext is. My first novel had a number of subtexts but one was racism. That meant I had to have some racist characters saying racist things (which appalled even me). None of the other characters ever said anything about...

You're talking about subtext and this is just about the most complex topic in literature. Off the top of my head... If you care about an issue, the likelihood is that it will emerge in your writing. Try not to deal with the issue directly, eg by naming the issue or having the characters state...

I agree with this (and also with Incanus and Jac...jam) but boy I hated The Buried Giant. (See my GR review Adrian Deans's review of The Buried Giant ) To take Jac...jam's point a little further, I'd suggest that all literature (regardless of how good or bad - on any scale) is by definition...

I've already linked my Excellent Bonking scenes article a thousand times so I won't bother again, unless by popular acclaim... Already been plenty of good advice in this thread so I'll just add what I say about every scene ever... put yourself in the scene. Immerse yourself in every sensory...

I've always been complimented on how well I write women but I've never written a female 1st person POV. The opportunity has just come up to do so and I'm already feeling very self conscious about it - after a page and a half.

Not to mention the fact that humour is a spectrum and everyone's sense of it will be different. Writing humour comes easily to me but that doesn't mean my characters are always cracking jokes. It means (mostly) that the expression of the narrative is wry/full of irony and understatement/and the...

Disagree strongly. Setting up a twist can take any form you choose and if that hapens to be in a joke, so be it.

What's fridging?

You'll break the internet with a question like that.

Or am I a bot myself? Who can tell...

I have to say (and I've suggested this to one or two regulars) that there are threads and posts over the last few months which have the whiff of AI bots about them. Do we know for sure everyone is human?

Template shows and therefore becomes predictable and ostensibly formulaic - which you do not want. Prose distinguished from others is precisely what I aspire to. I've written crime, historical and sci-fi but it's always my voice and regular readers tell me all my books feel similar despite the...

Jeez... to do that every chapter? Not only would it be a chore to write, it would become sooooo predictable.