Recent content by Velka

At the cottage once again, and wifi is actually working! It's currently raining in biblical proportions, I have Guy Gavriel Kay's Children of Earth and Sky waiting to be read, a half finished puzzle, a lazy dog sleeping at my feet, and entire day with nothing to do. Well, if this rain continues...

If you can use earth terms, there is more economy to your words, as you can create an image easily in the reader's mind. If you want to avoid using earth terms, then I suggest the POV view the animal doing something. Through the description of its action you can then show its attributes...

It's been a long haul for you, congrats on making it out the other side!

Is anyone else playing this? If not, you should. It has amazing storytelling, delicious writing, and choices with consequences. It's FTP, but you can pay to unlock other story lines, choices, or get more actions instead of waiting for them to refresh. I've thrown some money their way, because I...

Hi Tom! Glad to hear you're still enjoying fencing. Writing anything new?

I find that engaging in my other creative pursuits actually helps my writing. Taking time to knit/sew/crochet is as relaxing as meditation to me and I often come up with new ideas, figure out ways to fix story or character problems, etc. while going through the repetitive motions. Woodworking...

As you can see from all the responses, most creative types suffer from some form of anxiety, and if not Anxiety with a capital-A (being a clinical term), there's certainly anxiety in the I'm-never-going-to-be-good-enough-why-do-I even-try-it's-all awful-ARGH sense. Everyone is different, but...

I have no idea what is happening here.

As others have said, writing the story is much more important than knowing all those little details in the beginning. The more time you spend in your world, instead of outside your world, looking in, the more those details will organically emerge. The first drafts of my works is littered with...

Interrobang sounds like a form of torture. "General, the prisoner isn't speaking. We've tried water boarding and playing "Barbie Girl" for three hours straight, but he won't give up the location of the bomb." "It's time to step up our tactics son." "Surely you don't mean...."...

I will use '!?' when emailing friends or texting, but in professional emails or my writing it just feels a little juvenile to me. Same goes for exclamation marks on their own. I think punctuation is one of those things that is there, but people don't specifically notice it. It's more of an...

I used to write in 3rd person omni, but eventually found that 3rd person limited suits my style much better. I think the reason for this addresses your head hopping quandry. The biggest difference between the two I've found is character voice. When I'm writing 3rd person limited, every scene...

I think it depends on a multitude of factors, many of which have already been discussed. Here's two more to consider. - Don't add more of one gender (or change the gender of a character) just for the sake of balancing the scales. Your characters should be living, breathing people who are "who...

I think it depends on your goals and motivation. Sometimes there's things I know I need to do, but I mentally, emotionally, psychologically don't feel up for, so I lapse into "procrastination" writing, and while it's certainly not the best use of my time, I don't consider it a waste of time...

I almost always start with a character in a situation. From there I daydream about how they got in that situation, and what they're going to do (or not do) in response. From there new shoots grow into something story-ish. I used to just 100% wing it from there, and while that has lead to some...