Recent content by bdcharles

"No More Editing!"

The universe ties up its last loose end.

I think it would be neat to have a court system so byzantine as to be all but incomprehensible to mere mortals. Implausibly convoluted clauses along the lines of: "In the event that, that which and therefore, pursuant to thus which that falls before, and notwithstanding that which falls within...

I have a verb, piffed, which means "spoke in a dismissive fashion"

I used the word "knave" in The Story of Echo when I came up against just this issue. Hope that helps! :)

In my WIPS, technology and magic are kind of similar in that they are both just beginning to be understood. My MC is pretty technically minded, though I migt have her explore the mysteries of sorcery in WIP2..

Try writing a passage where one of your characters - their younger selves if you like - is in some situation or other. Doesn't matter what it is, or if it is relevant to their world. Just put them in it and chronicle what they do.

I use the Pseudo Elizabethan name generator and the Soybomb nonsense generator. Of course they give you vaguely anglicised ones, but the kingdoms of Chesterlark and Morrowfuse River, plus the Duchy of Commer, all agree with me... :)

My characters do use the occasional contemporary swear words (your F-bombs, your S words) even though the setting is alternate world / historical~ish, because I wanted to make it a bit more accessible. That being said, I follow @HaggardHawks on Twitter, and from there learned of the delightful...

Yes I have these alot. There is always a slight sense of foreboding, as if I've discovered how to fly but have violated some sort of natural law in the process. As if it is evidence that I am somehow possessed. Still feels pretty good though. :)

You mght also want to make your characters' features do something, rather than just "her auburn hair cascaded" or "his large frame stood" or "it was"-type things like that. Use body language and description-in-action, so maybe "she ran one elegant hand down her cascade of auburn hair" or "he...

I kind of want to buy his book now...

Cinderella's date wasn't going well.

I'm reading World Without End by Ken Follett right now. He is not the most inventive writer - his sentences aren't particularly challenging, but yet I can see everything he depicts very easily, and I've been trying to figure out how he does it. My tendency is to be flashy, to make every sentence...

My MC says "pick the rug up" when she wants people to get a move on. It probably comes from her mother. One of the MC's associates says "like down in a duckwell" to mean perfectly, or very well. "It's working like down in a duckwell". I don't really know where that comes from; possibly from a...