Recent content by Spring-Gem

What's dry to you may not by so to other readers, but writing style can cause characters to seem unemotional to readers. Years ago, I beta read a novel that had what I call a camera view. The action was described as though a camera were recording it. The fight scenes were highly detailed, but I...

Even successful writers feel that way on occasion. A book that brought this home to me was Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott. She freely admits that she has almost daily bouts of self-doubt and gives some good suggestions about how to combat it. I think it all boils down to actively quieting the inner...

Honestly, every story can be reduced to some kind of structure that is similar to other stories, for example the hero's journey or the 3 act story structure. Someone came up with the 36 dramatic situations. You could give your plot outline to 10 different people and get 10 totally different...

Every reader will imagine your characters differently than you do unless your descriptions are very detailed which is also quite boring. Describe your characters' appearances in general terms. If you describe a typical elf as tall, blonde haired, and blue eyed, you might imagine Legolas, but I...

They were probably talking about publishing rights. A copyright holder sells the "right to publish" a story or novel to a publisher. There are different types of rights, such as, first North American rights, first world rights, reprint rights, movie rights, etc. Publishers are usually interested...

Names can't be copyrighted, but they can be trademarked.

I read a Tolkien biography which indicated he very much wanted The Silmarillion published because he felt it was his most important work. When he finished LotR, he tried to get his publisher to agree to publish TS, even though it wasn't finished, but they didn't want to. He pulled LotR and got...

Most writers don't make a living from their writing. They either have a day job or a spouse who has a steady income. If you expect to make a living from your writing, you have to treat it as a job. Writers are considered self-employed so you have to keep track of your expenses and income for tax...

You can't please everyone. Yes, there are people who don't want to read about elves, but there are also people who like elves. Write the kind of story you want to read, and if it's written well enough it will have an audience.

Stop treating Miranda like a thing that is solely there to report about the antagonists. She should have her own goal that she is actively working toward. If I were in her situation, I'd be constantly trying to find a way to escape or somehow foil the kidnapper's plans. I wouldn't care at all...

Dune-Frank Herbert Call of the Wild and White Fang-Jack London Agent Pendergast series-Douglas Preston and Lee Child

Have you tried clustering/mindmapping? When I have a story idea that needs fleshed out, I start clustering around the various elements of the idea usually starting with the characters. I use a 12x18 sketch pad so I can doodle and make lists on the side of the page. I put down anything that...

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Improving your personal vocabulary is admirable, however you don't necessarily need to use all those new words in your writing. I think the vocabulary in a story aught to be appropriate for the POV character and the story you are trying to tell. An upper class business man will use/think...

Hello Everyone, I found this site while searching for a fantasy writing forum. I've dabbled in writing most of my life, but haven't made much progress in finishing projects. Now that I'm getting older, I decided that it was time to get serious about writing the fantasy series that keeps nagging...