Just as “villain” and “antagonist” are frequently used as synonyms, “hero” and “protagonist” are also confused a lot. But there is an added factor for some people, namely, where “main character” and “viewpoint character” fit. So first, some definitions and examples. “Main character” is a somewhat broader
Read more →“Villain” and “Antagonist” are frequently used as synonyms, because they fill roughly the same niche in a story. They aren’t quite the same thing, though. Villains are fundamentally evil; antagonists aren’t necessarily evil, or even bad. Stories always have some sort of antagonist, but that antagonist is
Read more →Writing books and classes are really fond of writing exercises, especially the ones that are intended for classroom use. I hated them for years—to me, they always seemed like a waste of time. I wanted to be attempting to write pay copy, even if my “pay copy”
Read more →Fourth Street Fantasy Convention has been one of my favorite cons—in both its incarnations—for years. Some years, I have a love/hate relationship with it, but I keep coming back. This year was no exception—I spent last weekend there, which is why you are getting a summary rather
Read more →It’s open mike day again! Chat amongst yourselves, brag, complain, nag, ask questions, whatever.
Read more →Whoever said “walk before you run” never spent much time with toddlers. Sure, toddlers start off trying to figure out balance and hanging on to coffee tables and couches in order to stay upright. But every last one of the ones I’ve met, once they let go
Read more →Every beginning is the end of something, and every ending is the start of something new. It follows that every beginning holds the seeds of its own eventual end. Those new shoots in the vegetable garden are the end of the seeds I planted two weeks ago,
Read more →Folk tales and fairy stories have been around for as long as people have. Specific details don’t always stay the same—there are over 300 versions of the story we mostly know as “Cinderella.” Some use a ring as identification, rather than a shoe; in others she attends
Read more →Everyone agrees that writer’s block has something to do with not writing, but exactly what counts as writer’s block varies wildly. Some think writer’s block is anything at all that results in not-writing (including having a hangover or deciding they’d rather go to the beach today than
Read more →“Writing forsoothly” is a term that has floated around the publishing industry for decades, resurfacing every time a novel that uses elevated or pseudo-historical language becomes popular, and a zillion people decide to imitate it. It’s easiest to see in dialog, when the author clearly has no
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