Today’s post is a little out-of-the-ordinary, and I was anxious to get it up, hence a Friday post. Story Embers is running a challenge to encourage support and interaction in the writing community, and one of the prompts last week was to pray for the writing community. I’ve done a really bad job of keeping up with the prompts, but I did write up a prayer for writers a few days ago (the Christian writing community specifically), and I wanted to share it to hopefully encourage those of you in that community. So without further ado… Continue reading “A Prayer for Writers”
Tag: Writing
5 Tips for Writing a Great Montage Sequence
Several weeks ago, a friend of mine asked for advice on how to write a montage sequence and I, having no tips off the top of my head but being aware that I’d really admired the montage in 100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons, decided to study said montage for some pointers to pass on. So this post is thanks to Maple for the question and thanks to Abbie Emmons for writing a montage sequence well-worth studying. ;) Continue reading “5 Tips for Writing a Great Montage Sequence”
Why Sequels Are Harder to Write – Guest Post by Hope Bolinger
Today we have a guest on the blog! Hope Bolinger is a YA author and literary agent, and this post is part of the blog tour to promote her upcoming book: Den. Stick around to the end of the post to read more about that.
Have you ever read a sequel and thought, “Meh. The original was better”?
Or have you ever felt that a book didn’t need a sequel, and that the author simply wrote a second book because their publisher said, “Stacey, you sold a million books. We need a second installment NOW!”?
Believe it or not, authors get intimidated by writing sequels. Even if we’d originally planned for a series, we worry that our second book will end up like so many other second installments to popular books: mediocre at best.
In this article, I’ll break down some of the trickiest obstacles to writing a sequel, and how to overcome them. Continue reading “Why Sequels Are Harder to Write – Guest Post by Hope Bolinger”
Writing Fantasy to Explore Worldview
Something I’ve been exploring a lot lately in my Deseran worldbuilding is worldview. What cultures believe what? How do those beliefs differ from group to group and person to person? How do those beliefs clash with the beliefs of other cultures? I’ve found that I really enjoy exploring these different perspectives, and exploring how they do or don’t capture the real-world truth. So I wanted to write about some ways we can explore worldview effectively when writing fantasy, in hopes that some of you will also find it interesting or informative. This is something I’m still learning, so I don’t have it all figured out yet, but here are some of the things I’ve been able to identify from my own thought processes. Continue reading “Writing Fantasy to Explore Worldview”
5 Things YA Fiction Could Do Better
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on why I read YA even though it often stinks. Today I want to talk about a few ways I think it could stink less. ;) Obviously, considering my previous post, I read YA even though I personally find it less-than-ideal, but here are a few things I’d like to see more or less often in YA fiction to sort of balance out the not-so-great YA books.