Recent content by Brian G Turner

You need to ensure that you're well read in the genre you're writing for, and learn to be able to make your own opinion on this rather than rely on other people's. It's just part of the writing journey, but one you'll almost certainly need to travel.

You can try - I'm sure most of us do so to some degree - but the big caveat is that you can invest in reworking a scene to brilliance, only to find you have to cut that all out later.

There are a lot of online articles written by aspiring writers, but the trouble is that it's the blind leading the blind. There are no absolutes in writing - genre writing is a different animal to literary writing, and there's room for cross over inbetween. Books on writing I've read basically...

Sometimes you're just missing something important - an insight, an understanding. There's no harm in simply putting aside and starting another project, with every intention to return to it once you realise what you're missing. It's perfectly ordinary to work through a few potential novels...

I do like backstory, and like many others, I've often suffered the problem of sticking too much in. The way I've found to avoid this is to imagine that I am going to write a prequel, where the backstory can all be covered in glorious detail. I may or may never write that prequel, but that's not...

Heh, I do this a lot. :) What I've found helps is to throw in some conflict - make them argue. And think carefully about your character arcs as to where they begin, and how they will develop.

Modern stories tend to be character-driven. Making comparisons to film is unfair, because we are a species primarily driven by the visual experience, something that film and TV use to great effect. Written stories work with the imagination, which means that the visual experience immediately...

Looks good if you need a focus on modern weapons. :)

In 1993 I picked up a book on writing, and ended up throwing it across the room at an early chapter on W diagrams. How dare anyone try to reduce the pure art of storytelling into a formula! I went through a long phase of refusing to accept that there are technically important ways to write...

The room should be filled with things that have emotional meaning and purpose for the character. I know you say you understand your characters, but perhaps you are missing elements like this from your understanding of them?

I need to ask - why are you throwing figures about if you don't understand them? If you're writing a story then any details about ocean depths will be almost completely irrelevant under any envisaged scenario. However, if you are starting from the point of having a specific atmospheric effect...

I'm confused - are you aware that 65 million years ago the Deccan Traps - effectively covering nearly half of India - blew up in a massive and long-lasting volcanic event?

IMO most characters will use whatever suitable transport is available. The Darth Vader TIE Fighter is a visual example that is unlikely to translate well to a novel. skip.knox and FifthView do make good suggestions, though. On the subject of mounts, I will always remember the scene in Colleen...

On the one hand, I'd suggest you write what you know best - anyone can identify with feelings of terror, shame, and fear of discovery over some perceived wrong. You could really push on that to create sympathetic characters in an oppressive world, from a more unique perspective than is usual...

Honest Trailers is a big fave here as well, but I've watched a couple of Cinema Sins recently as well. :)