On June 19-21, 2026, Fourth Street Fantasy will hold an in-person convention at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Minneapolis – Park Place. Patricia Wrede will attend this weekend of writing and reading discussion, socializing, and fun. Click the link for details.
Read more →It’s another open mike/mic day. Talk about whatever you want–questions, answers, updates on current work, vacation plans, whatever. I’m getting started on a completely new thing. It’s complicated and has…a lot more backstory than usual. I’ve had to do a lot more worldbuilding and planning than usual,
Read more →Last week, I talked about the narrative part of a dialog scene. This week, I’m going to talk about the dialog part. The first thing to remember about dialog is that it is not a transcript of a conversation. It’s a model of a conversation. A transcript
Read more →There are very few novels that don’t depend heavily on dialog for everything from plot exposition to characterization. So if you want to write novels, figuring out how to get the most from dialog is important. (If you want to write plays or movies, it’s even more
Read more →“The truest thing you can say about writing is ‘it depends’”—Scott Lynch “It depends” is the experienced writer’s answer to anyone who’s looking for rules and recipes. There is no “right answer.” There is only “a possible right answer for this story.” Even then, it’s only a
Read more →It’s been a while since I talked about structure, and Rose’s question in the last Open Mike made me realize that I normally talk about structure in general, not about specific story structures. So this time, I’m going to dig into alternating storylines. I’m not talking about
Read more →A lot of writers have talked about the importance of choosing the “right word,” from Gustave Flaubert’s “le mot juste” to Mark Twain’s “the difference between the almost-right word and the right word…is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” We talk about this because
Read more →It’s another Open Mike! Talk amongst yourselves about whatever you want–news, WIPs, questions, complaints, what gets you going, what gets you stuck, whatever…
Read more →If you want to make a living in the arts, there are always two things you have to worry about: how to create the best art you can (whether it’s a physical product like a book or painting, or something more ephemeral like a live performance), and
Read more →Writer’s Block. There are a ton of different definitions of it, ranging from the exceedingly broad (“Any time you want to write but can’t for whatever reason” which technically includes sitting in the dentist’s chair or being at the store buying groceries) to the humorous (“Writer’s block
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