Writing

articles on writing

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New Worlds: Sanctification

It’s almost axiomatic that religious things are different from secular ones. Over and over again, we see the dichotomy of the sacred and the profane cropping up in human societies. But what needs to be sanctified? And how is this state achieved?

New Writers Ask: What is Scene Craft and Why Should I Care?

“How would you define scene development and what is the key to making it consistently good throughout a novel?” This was a question asked of me by a ghostwriting client. Scene craft is something that has become organic enough for me through years of experience that I’ve ceased to think about what goes into it. …

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A Rambling Writer Rerun: Crete, part 6: Falassarna Whispers

Join me in another flashback to my early backpacking trip across Crete, when I camped in the Minoan ruins of Falassarna and heard whispers from the past. NOTE: Of course, Thor and I had to make another trip to Greece, as he’s fallen as much in love with the islands as I am. This time, …

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New Worlds Theory Post: Unfortunate Implications

The last time we had a theory essay, I talked about thinking through the logical results of one’s worldbuilding. Closely related, but not quite the same, are the unfortunate implications that worldbuilding can sometimes have. By this I mean, not the practical effects on the world — the easy ways to make a kingdom richer …

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Steampunk Oregon Style

Phyllis’ blog originally published November 2011. Bringing this back because costumes! And because whatever happened to American Steampunk!? [For an update, check out Neverwas magazine’s opinion on that. Steampunk is alive and well–just not here.] The weekend of July 22-24, 2011 Portland, Oregon’s first convention dedicated solely to Steampunk.  Since I sold my first SF/F trilogy …

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The New Worlds series is brought to you by my imaginative backers at Patreon! www.patreon.com/swan_tower

New Worlds: Intellectual Disability

To the modern, western, medical mind, intellectual disabilities are generally distinct from mental illnesses. But as we’ve already discussed, other frameworks for understanding such problems attribute them to different causes, and as such, don’t necessarily differentiate the one from the other. In particular, the responses to them were often the same, so before we turn …

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Confessions of a Ghostwriter: A Dish Best Served Cool

In a prior ”confession,” I talked about the qualities of a hero in context with a book I was writing for a client I code-named Murphy. My pointing out that a master of strong and intelligent followers would be more impressive than a master of weak, incompetent ones prompted Murphy to tell me that toning …

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