November 4, 2015

The Top Tool for Realism Is Imagery

It’s hard to talk about realistic writing without talking about imagery. What I said yesterday about realism related to research, experiences, and believability is true, but it was still framed in big ideas (almost more related to plotting: what situations or experiences will the reader believe are real?). Imagery is more about the small details of the experience, and it is one...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques/Research & Worldbuilding Comments: 6
November 2, 2015

Do Authors Tell Stories Or Lies?

A friend of mine is a teacher for a private enrichment company, and one night, she had a student who was determined to argue. Whatever the topic, he could find something wrong with it. When they got to fiction, he pretended to be horrified, saying that fiction is a lie (and, therefore, morally wrong). It was obvious that he was deliberately...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques/Quotes, Words, & Phrases/Research & Worldbuilding Comments: 0
November 1, 2015

You Can’t Scare Your Audience Without Suspension of Disbelief

All this talk about horror seems like the perfect time to mention suspension of disbelief – the ability to set aside reality long enough to enjoy the story. As readers or audience members, we have to accept the underlying “lies” of the story (supernatural monsters, magic, amazingly advanced technology, talking animals, or even people bursting out into song and dance),...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 3
October 31, 2015

The Town of Elsewhere: A Scary Short Story for Your Halloween

What’s Halloween without at least one scary story? I thought this one was pretty good and well-written, but as LeVar Burton would say, “…you don’t have to take my word for it.” “There’s A Town In Kentucky That You Won’t Ever Be Able To Find On A Map, And For Good Reason” by Seamus Coffey The overgrown gravel road leading...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates/Reviews & Recommended Reading Comments: 0
October 31, 2015

Recommended Reading: A Little Horror for Your Halloween

Having only recently taken an interest in horror, I don’t have a lot of personal experience with the genre. That’s why when I started research for Bloodletting, I asked friends and family what aspects they liked best and what books/movies were their favorites. In the process, I found out that several good friends of mine are big horror fans. These two...
Categories Research & Worldbuilding/Reviews & Recommended Reading Comments: 0
October 30, 2015

An Author’s Thrill: Recipes from the Worlds of J.K. Rowling & J.R.R. Tolkien

As a reader, it’s always fun to find recipes for foods from your favorite books for movies. I recently came across one for homemade butterbeer, and, of course, many people have tried to recreate Tolkien’s cakes and foods from The Hobbit, including researching the kinds of food that Tolkien would have been familiar with (“Food in The Hobbit“). Thinking about it as an author, though,...
Categories General Thoughts & Updates Comments: 0