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I tell you, I am obsessed with the whole “Weird West” idea,* basically, South Dakota ghost stories. I sat down this morning to brainstorm NaNoWriMo ideas for November (since I became vehemently discouraged with the previous idea while reading The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, by Chris Wooding; it wasn’t the same plot but motivated by […]

via Very Good Taste. Here’s a chance for a little interactivity for all the bloggers out there. Below is a list of 100 things that I think every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life. The list includes fine food, strange food, everyday food and even some pretty bad food –

Siberian Wooden Houses @ Vladstudio.com

I really should have parceled these out, one a week. Unfortunately, when I do that kind of thing, I start revising too much, or I forget to finish the damned thing. Last one 🙂 What’s the difference between major and minor characters? Not a whole lot. The main character contains the story conflict; the major

How to make a minor character that symbolizes an element in the story. This one’s tricky. Nebulous. I’m grasping at straws… Maybe I’m just splitting hairs with this last category here, but I want to differentiate between theme and story element. If a theme is a mini-moral, a minor building block of the “so what,”

How to make minor characters that establish setting. Setting isn’t just buildings, weather, and stuff–it’s characters, too. Setting establishes: Place and time (in our example, a modern-day college town) Mood (an ordinary college town–not Miskatonic U.) Theme* (education is a part of real life, not separate from it) The setting should go back to the

How to make minor characters that show off the main character. Back to the “so what.” Out of the “so what” comes the main conflict–stories are about drama, which is based on conflict. –The main, story conflict isn’t the same thing as the plot conflict. The story conflict is on a level of “Good vs.

How to make minor characters that move the plot forward. First, you need to know your plot. For some people (like me), this means you have to finish the first draft of the book and figure out what the story is actually about. Other people can plan ahead and do this before they write their

Bar owner Bill Trout weighs the safety of his loved ones against his ornery sense of justice when interstellar cops threaten to destroy Bill’s town if he doesn’t hand over the unnerving alien scientist he’s been hiding for the last sixteen years–right down to their memories. Pros: It seems to capture the storyline better, which

I’m trying to write up a how-to on writing minor characters, but I feel like I’m just making an ass of myself. I mean, I feel like I know something, because I keep running across useless minor characters and going, “No, that’s not it,” but I’m still working out what it is that would make