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Author: emtwytte

December 23, 2015

The Holidays Are a Great Time For People Watching (And Writing About Them)

Remember the people watching writing prompt? It’s fun under normal conditions (and great for characterization research and inspiration), but it’s even more interesting during the holiday season. See, on an average day, you get fodder for how people act on average days. For many people, the holidays are not average days. No, during the holiday season, people work unusual hours, spend...
Categories Characterization Exercises/Holiday & Seasonal/Writing Prompts Comments: 0
December 22, 2015

Worldbuilding Without Traditions Feels Fake

December is one month where many different cultural holidays overlap. Even those without strong religious beliefs often have certain activities they associate with the holiday season. That makes it a particularly appropriate time to talk about traditions and worldbuilding. As far as I know, every single culture in existence has traditions that it relies on (they are generally different from culture...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Research & Worldbuilding Comments: 0
December 17, 2015

The Sense of Inexorable Death: YA v. Adult Novels

If someone asked me to name the biggest difference between young adult and adult stories, I would say, “Death.” Yes, I know that there’s more to it, including the age of the character and the difficulty level of the writing; however, when it comes to the maturity level, death plays a big part in transitioning between children’s books, YA fiction,...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 3
December 16, 2015

Shakespearian Tragedies & Happy Endings: A Great Reason to Be Wary of Writing Trends

While I’m talking about happy endings and trends in what is considered good writing, let’s talk about Restoration England (cuz why not?). It’s a period when people preferred happy endings – to the point where they re-wrote Shakespeare’s tragedies to have them. Let me say that again: they re-wrote Shakespeare’s tragedies to have happy endings. Granted, years of strict Puritan laws...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates Comment: 1