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I'm going to spin this around for you. In Jeffrey Schechter's My Story Can Beat Up Your Story, Schechter suggests that a lot of theme is about the protagonist asking a thematic question, e.g., ...
Allow me to explain what I mean by 'thematic setting'. I'm talking about a setting which, simply by having the story located in it, shows the reader something: ideally a message - or theme - that y...
I think this is a false dichotomy. Art is a form of communication. It fails if it does not communicate. We hear a lot of talk about "expressing yourself" but that is hollow unless you are expressin...
Yes, you should absolutely care about the story, and the gameplay as well, because those are what will keep people actually comming back. Art (and music) should always be secondary to making the g...
In contrast to Neil Fein (in his comment) I understand the question to be: How can I be more original? When it comes to originality, there is a continuum, with plagiarism (and fan fiction) on the...
I'm going to answer this from a different point of view. What you ask for, and what many inexperienced artists crave, is a secret or formula they can follow to create outstanding art. They read ho...
I think you need to distinguish four aspects of writing and focus on the ones that you most want to improve on. They are: The mechanics of writing: Sentence structure, punctuation, etc. For this ...
Tread with caution. A lot of caution. Free stories to promote the author is a marketing strategy. As such, there are situations where it can be wonderful; situations it can be disastrous; situati...
Alternate History is a real (and popular) genre. Alternate History fiction asks "what if something different happened" and then extrapolates how the world would be different. Generally, the 'this'...
I'm unsure if it's meaningful, if it has enough depth. How do I determine this? You might start by asking yourself: what kind of meaningfulness or depth am I looking for? With very few except...
Apologies for what is a bit of a non-answer-answer. Because a great many conceptual-art-objects blatantly flaunt traditional definitions concerned with objects, properties, authorship, intent, and ...
Any discussion of quality in art depends on your theory of what art is for. There seem to be two dominant theories of art today. Theory: art creates an experience In the case of literature, this...
I've had very good luck with fiverr.com (yes, two r's). It is called "fiverr" because the artists are supposed to be able to do some (relatively small) thing for $5 US. I have zero financial intere...
Your proofreader felt disturbed because there may be some inconsistencies in your story. I'll point my finger against the fact that you changed some country names. This - per se - is not a proble...
Well, first, you cannot write about any politically charged issue without being read as taking sides. If you are ideologically aligned with one side, the other will throw rocks through your window....
I don't know about "looking back" and "career", I'm still rather looking forward to that... :) That said, one piece of advice that really struck me, stuck with me and stayed with me is Neil Gaiman'...
I want to make my art, to express with no limits. However, I also need to profit with it. If I sell my art purely, the readers might not understand, like or be interested in it, and thus resulting ...
I haven't heard of it. When you can get whole books for free, and many books for 99c, this seems an unlikely route to successful marketing. If any piecemeal approach has a chance of working, I'd s...
The classic solution is to introduce conflict or tension. These naturally intrigue the reader and command his attention. Any conflict, no matter how minor or subtle, is enough to engage the reader'...
I've always been told there are two ways to deal with setting: write the story and the setting will follow, or not, several of the best pieces of writing I've ever been privy to are all character...
I am German. You will soon understand why I state this up front. In German cultural theory a difference is made between so called 'serious' literature, music, painting and so on, and 'entertaining'...
The current wisdom in marketing books is that the art should give the "flavor" of the book. Check out these Harry Potter Book Covers on google images. Or here is the 15th Anniversary edition of Har...
This notion that a novel has a meaning that we can ferret out and interpret has been a staple of English teachers for decades. Essentially it is an attempt to turn a novel (or any other work of art...
The components of a really effective payoff, in my mind, are these: The reader knows something is coming But: they don't know what is coming. They have open questions; they have doubts. They're i...
Here's a list of various techniques I use when it comes to naming characters: The lazy approach Pick the first good name that comes into your head. Simple. I do this for a lot of minor or one-sho...
