Activity for Standbackâ€
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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A: Are there good tips on being a better *creative* writer? Sure there are :) Here's some resources I've found to be extremely helpful: - Orson Scott Card's Character and Viewpoint is one of the best creative writing books I've read. He talks about character creation and "interrogating" you character for detail and color; about coming up with story concepts ... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
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A: Are there any techniques that make complexity work? Well, that's a complex question :P There's lots of different kinds of complexity, requiring different tools - a complex character is different than a complex setting; a complicated plot is different from a plot expressing a complicated idea. Here's some guidelines I can share, from hearsay and from... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
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A: Resources on plotting mystery stories Specifically on Tapply's Elements of Mystery Fiction, I bought the book, and was disappointed to find almost nothing concerning the plotting issues I raised in the question. Alas. (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
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A: Finding before/after examples where writing has been improved, to learn from Orson Scott Card gives a great example of 4 drafts for the opening of Ender's Shadow, explaining as he goes why each draft isn't what he wants. Sounds like exactly what you're looking for - you can read it here. Another excellent resource is Janet Reid's Query Shark. It's a huge trove of critiqued r... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
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A: Resources for character development I highly recommend Orson Scott Card's Characters and Viewpoint. It's an excellent book (probably the best book on writing that I've read), and he discusses a lot of important issues in building characters that are very insightful. Not only shopping lists of details, but how the character is viewed b... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
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A: What genre is a book in an imaginary world but no other fantasy element? What happens in your story seems, from your description, to be action/thriller. Where your story is set is an imaginary world, bearing some resemblance to the real world in the 1950-ish era. The question remaining is how central the setting is to the book. - If the world is clearly, inherantly ima... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
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A: Where is a good place to find writing prompts? I haven't read it myself, but I think this book, The 3 A.M. Epiphany by Brian Kitely, sounds like exactly what you're looking for. It's got very nice reviews - both in terms of score, and the actual description. Here's the first one that sounded like a great match for your question: > The exercises ... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
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A: Do online writing classes really help? Short answer: online writing workshops can be helpful, if you're careful to chose a good one, and if your level of writing and professionalism is in the same rough vicinity as the course. Additionally, almost any workshop has the immediate bonuses of A) encouraging you to write regularly, and B) gett... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |
| Question | — |
Resources on plotting mystery stories I'm looking for books, essays and articles on plotting mystery/detective/investigation stories (and novels). The type of story I'm aiming for is in the vein of Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, or Asimov's Robots/Elijah Baley novels. It seems to me that plotting out mysteries is a very distinct, spe... (more) |
— | almost 14 years ago |