Writing Tip: Prevention is better than cure - Avoid these ten new writer mistakes

Storytellers need to understand these ten points before they start writing. It’s worth spending some time at Holt Uncensored. There is a great archive and the material offered is good practical solid information that explains things very well. I spent a lot of time searching the net for storytellers who knew what they were doing, partly market research, but also to pick up on anything I might be missing, and I tell you “There is a lot of garbage advice out there.” A lot of misconceptions, and a lot of know-about, but very little know.

As a writer and storyteller I want sure and certain knowledge that I can use and that adds to the toolkit I will employ as a writer. There is one particular article Holt wrote that totally settles the argument about plot, scene, or character. I searched high and low for viewpoints on that one for quite some time and I heard and read so many opinions and despaired of finding one that actually worked. In my opinion Holt got it right and settles that particular debate, except for a couple of things: Function and Point Zero.

Creativity is a fishy business!

Recipes for creative success, we need ‘em. We really do! But here’s a tip for great health and the kind of food that keeps us up late at night burning fish oil in our minds! Seriously, fish is the food I and other Creative Artists eat to keep the words working smoothly. We’ll be bringing you some recipes to make you salivate and stay up late creating later. But fish and chocolate, not together! So what do you eat to keep the creativity running hot?

My favourite tip for songwriter’s block

I once invented a concept that has all but destroyed songwriter’s block in my life. At least, for the time being!

It’s called the tuneback. It wasn’t really created to combat creative block, but because all the members of Midnight.Haulkerton were itching for an excuse to put half-baked music out there while we worked on an album enshrined in top secrecy.

In order to ensure that minimum time was stolen from the endeavor of our precious album, we set a one hour, once a week time limit on the tuneback. It is central to the whole concept, actually. It taught us very quickly that the difference between a song that took an hour to write and record, and a song that took an hour and a half to write and record, is a very big one - and thus, that particular unit of time is very much important and influential on the sound of each final tuneback.

But what has this got to do with songwriter’s block?

I swear, it’s the pressure. I didn’t think it would work that way, but if I know I’ve got a song to write and if I don’t write it people are going to pissed, I write one. Seriously, I was a couple of hours late once, and I got a disgruntled email.

Pressure. It’s horrible for creative minds, but it works (kind of like how crack works for law students).

There and back again - World Building for Storytellers - The Fargoth World Building Project

Through the miracle of modern technology today, it is now possible for a story to be realized and constructed as a virtual world and this has changed the nature of the marketplace and opened up tremendous opportunities for those writers who embrace the idea of not just telling a story, but realizing entire worlds, multiple cultures and races.

Tolkien captured it best when he wrote the immortal lines of “There and back again” for they capture beautifully and simply what is at the the heart of the reader experience when they fall in love with or become immersed in a story; the desire to go somewhere other than this world, and experience what it would be like to be someone else, live in any time, any place, and under conditions far removed from the real world in which we all live. Time travel? Read more

Pain & Suffering: do we need it to create great art? Part 2

This article is part 2 and follows on from Joel Falconer’s original where he finished off with this…

“So long as the traditional industry (and society) can point to the popularly propagated idea that ‘artists must suffer’ they have a reason to keep us in the dark, abuse us, rape us of our rights and suck us dry of every dollar, every word, every melody and every stroke of the brush that lies within us. Stop this myth now. Artists do not need to suffer to produce great work.

If you really believe “Artists need to suffer for their art” is a true and valid concept worthy of merit then next time you’re at the sex shop or visiting the CIA’s secret torture bases, pick up some whips and other instruments of torture, perhaps a waterboard and a set of fingernail pullers and bring them home to work over your local writers group, the garage band down the road who so obviously need help, and the painter whose delicate hands just beg for some knuckle crushing and thumb screwing and make them suffer, because the resultant works they produce will be guaranteed hits, oh, yeah. Success is just a whipping away. And of course, it’s firmly known by women and children everywhere that emotional and intellectual abuse makes them better people. Read more

Writing Tip: Writing Action Scenes - Great advice from Poul Anderson

Many years ago, when I started writing my first fantasy epic and was using the internet to research the potential for internet marketing and utilization, and in particular how it could be used as a research & marketing and educational tool (among its many other uses), I came across Poul Anderson’s On Thud and Blunder.

This is a very valuable piece of writing craft that literally makes the difference between amateur and profesional writing in the field of fantasy. It has a focus on writing action scenes, and though this is a fantasy-focused article it has relevance to any storyteller who is faced with writing strong action scenes which need to engage the reader, and put them into the middle of the action.

Poul’s article contains great advice and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Changing the World - A Peaceful Evolution - Changing Our Ideas

Since I was 7 years old I have been aware that the world is not a good place. But what is the world? And what is “changing the world”? Why did “changing the world” lose favor? How did it lose favor? Read more

Pain & Suffering: do we need it to create great art?

Why is enduring pain and suffering considered a prerequisite for forming good artists and producing good art? And why, then, is it not important for a businessman to endure the same for the sake of the spreadsheets? For too long, the myth that enduring the worst life can cook up helps artists become great artists has been propagated through society. It’s just another excuse that makes it alright to treat artists, when working professionally, like subhumans while the rest of humanity goes about life comparatively unscathed.

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Spammers Spoofing Allforart in what amounts to Fraud are put on notice

Although Allforart Limited has never launched a single email campaign to date, spammers are already spoofing Allforart’s email addresses and using them to send out SPAM in violation of domestic and international anti-spam laws.

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The Internet’s effect on publishing models

In 1586, the Swiss painter Josse Amman published a series of plates on the era’s fashions, entitled Gynasceum. Today, it’s regarded as the first fashion magazine. Then in 1731, Englishman Edward Cave first published The Gentleman’s Magazine, a publication that would run for almost 150 years. The Gentleman’s Magazine was the first commercially successful implementation of this kind of periodical, a format that had never been seen before. Read more