Genre specific writing craft tips.
A lot of writers hear that romance is the number one selling genre and with that in mind decide they want to write a romance novel. Let me start by saying I think that is a horrible reason to want to write a romance novel and one that is laden with possibilities for failure. Romance … [Read more…]
One of the cliches of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing is the tradition of unpronounceable character names. You know the kind I mean: a string of consonants and, instead of vowels, various punctuation marks. Examples are Lord K’lghn, Gy-v’nly from the planet Y’jhtrg, and the awful Q’vintg from beyond the black depths (okay, I made … [Read more…]
I read a recent horror novel in which the hero, having bought a creepy old house, receives a scrapbook from the previous owner loaded with photos and clues to its history. Our hero spies something disturbing in one of the photos, and his reaction? He throws the whole scrapbook in the fire. This horror plot device … [Read more…]
One problem with writing fantasy novels in which heroes and heroines wield swords, shields and sundry other objets d’mayhem, is that most of us have no idea what using those things is actually like. Luckily, it’s almost a moot point–most of our readers have little experience in this area as well, and so don’t know … [Read more…]
So you want to write a romance novel? Do you know what that means? Very briefly, a romance focuses on the central story of two people falling in love, and the challenges they encounter trying to make the relationship work. It also means the story will end with the understanding that these two characters will wind … [Read more…]