Tag Archives: Science Fiction

Can We Have At Least Two Interesting Characters?

Hey man, I know it’s hard. You’re sitting down at the keyboard, busting out your latest masterpiece, and you’re thinking:

“Man, characterization is tough! What if I just did it for my protagonist and no one else?” Continue reading Can We Have At Least Two Interesting Characters?

Downer Endings: The Novel’s Answer to the Hollywood Ending!

I’ve been jamming tons of text into my eyeballs lately, flash fiction and short stories, novels and craft blogs.

I also told you how I really feel when I wrote Things I’m Sick of Reading About in September. In it, I railed against stories that lack a proper ending. TL;DR If you misuse authorial power so blatantly, this is you:

“My writing bores me. You finish the story, peon!”

Call me old-fashioned, but I believe in real stories; stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. Stories that leave the audience satisfied, rather than befuddled, upon reaching the end. When someone writes a story with no end, I wonder, did they have a purpose in writing at all, or did they just want to waste my reading time? In 100% of apprentice writers, 99% of journeyman writers, and 95% of masters, the inconclusive ending flops.

So I stand unapologetically pro-ending.

Next question! Given that an ending must exist (assuming you buy my unconvincing and ill-backed opinion), what kind of ending shall we have? Continue reading Downer Endings: The Novel’s Answer to the Hollywood Ending!

What I’m Reading: The Tomorrow Project

I picked up The Tomorrow Project: Bestselling Authors Describe Daily Life In The Future at Norwescon in 2011. Given my forty book backlog (which I’m decreasing, at least until my December B&N/Half-Priced Books trip), my reading latency shouldn’t be shocking.

Continue reading What I’m Reading: The Tomorrow Project