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Category Archives: Setting
Professional Wednesday: Beginnings, Middles, and Endings, part V — What Makes a Good Ending?
Continuing my Professional Wednesday feature on “Beginnings, Middles, and Endings,” (previous posts can be found here, here, here, and here) I now turn to endings. And I will begin by stating the obvious: The ending to our story is likely … Continue reading
Posted in Falstaff Books, Fantasy, Islevale Cycle, Novels, Reading, Setting, Short Fiction, Thieftaker, Writing
Tagged blogging, Casablanca, character development, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, Guy Gavriel Kay, how to write, Islevale Cycle, Lord of the Rings, narrative, narrative arc, Thieftaker Chronicles, three-act structure, Tigana, Time's Assassin, writing, writing advice, writing tips
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Professional Wednesday: Trust Yourself. No, Really.
Trust your reader. This is editor speak for “trust yourself.” It is something I say often to many of the writers I edit. But what does it mean? I have had my own lesson in “trust your reader” in recent … Continue reading
Posted in Business of publishing, Character, Fantasy, Novels, Setting, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged blogging, character, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, editing, how to write, narrative, plotting, publishing, revising, Rules of Ascension, setting, Tor Books, Winds of the Forelands, world building, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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Creative Wednesday: Communicating Our World Building To Our Readers
Tomorrow night, I will be giving a talk on world building here at the university, in a themed residential house devoted to writing. The students from the house, at least those I’ve met so far, are earnest and passionate and … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy, History, Novels, Setting, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged blogging, D.B. Jackson, data dumps, David B. Coe, descriptions, dialogue, how to write, language, world building, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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Professional Wednesdays: Lessons From Manuscript Critiques — Simple Is Better
I am reading stories right now for a teaching gig I have coming up in early March. I’ll be running a critique workshop, and so I not only have to read and comment on the manuscripts, I also should take … Continue reading
Posted in Novels, Publishing, Setting, Short Fiction, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged blogging, concision, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, Faith Hunter, how to write, mechanics of writing, prose, sentence structure, teaching, worldbuilding, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Holidays As Part of World Building
I have written about the holidays a good deal in the past few weeks, but I have yet to address holidays as a topic in a Writing-Tip Wednesday post. Now, you’re first response to this might be, “Well, why would … Continue reading
Posted in Character, Fun, History, Islevale Cycle, Novels, Setting, Short Fiction, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged blogging, creativity, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, history, holidays, how to write, narrative, novels, religion, setting, short fiction, the Islevale Cyle, traditions, Winds of the Forelands, world building, worldbuilding, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Descriptions and Point of View
Description does not — cannot — take place in an emotional or circumstantial vacuum. Not that long ago, I offered tips on writing scenes involving sex and violence, and essentially said that dealing with such encounters is almost entirely a … Continue reading
Posted in Character, Setting, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged blogging, character, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, description, emotion, how to write, point of view, setting, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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Writing-Tip Wednesday: How To Handle Profanity In Your Writing
Have you watched the HBO series Deadwood? It’s a Western, the creative child of the brilliant David Milch. It’s violent, brutally realistic, and absolutely the most profane thing I have ever watched, with the possible exception of the Academy Award-winning … Continue reading
Posted in Business of publishing, Novels, Publishing, Setting, Thieftaker, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged blogging, business of writing, character, cursing, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, fantasy, how to write, narrative, novels, profanity, publishing, publishing business, short fiction, Thieftaker Chronicles, worldbuilding, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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Writing-Tip Wednesday: Ideas — Finding Them, Using Them
You may notice at this point that I have yet to offer any tangible advice on dealing with or coming up with ideas. That’s right: I’m stalling. Writing about ideas is really hard. Giving advice on developing ideas is nearly … Continue reading
Posted in Novels, Setting, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged blogging, creativity, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, how to write, ideas, LonTobyn Chronicle, where do ideas come from, Winds of the Forelands, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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Writing Tip Wednesday: Maps, Worldbuilding, and the Creation of Story
So you’re trapped in your home with too much time and too little to do. The world around you has gone to hell, and you’re fed up. Sound familiar? Yeah, thought so. So why not take the opportunity to create … Continue reading
Posted in Character, Islevale Cycle, Setting, Writing, Writing Life
Tagged Black Gate Magazine, blogging, Case Files of Justis Fearsson, creativity, D.B. Jackson, David B. Coe, how to write, Islevale Cycle, maps, setting, Thieftaker, Winds of the Forelands, worldbuilding, writing, writing advice, writing life, writing tips
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