D.N. Bryn
Speculative Fiction and Beyond
Tag: writing advice
Not all books are made equal.
(Not all books are made equal.) The making of not all books is equal. Some stories take ages to write, and longer to edit. Some you can knock out in what feels like an instant. Some are long. Some are short. Some are complex….
How to Staying Motivated While You Write: On the days you want to give up.
This is a very simple question in that I have answered before, and yet a very hard one because the way I stay motivated isn’t going to work for everyone. How do I, Bryn, stay motivated? Flexible outlines. I have a lovely outline that tells me I have so…
What not to (not) write in fantasy.
I’ve seen some posts going around on what not to write in fantasy, many of which amount to: Don’t write evil kings. Don’t write people who are evil for the sake of evil. Don’t write bullies. Don’t write villains at all actually. Don’t write mentors. Don’t…
The Stuff In Between The Dialogue.
Though we don’t usually need a lot going on outside the dialogue itself, it often feels static or otherwise unnatural if you have a entire conversation with dialogue, a few tags, and nothing else. But we never want to add extra words for the…
Every scene furthers the plot.
Some writers confuse “you must further the plot with every scene” with “heavy plot handling must happen constantly.” (Which is a shame, because the latter is not only incorrect, but can make your character’s interactions stiff and boring.) It’s okay to let your characters…
Writing Your First Novel Right.
While I have a book published (siren! pirates! okay yeah enough with the marketing), I’m still editing the first novel I wrote. It’s okay if your first novel takes a long time. It’s okay if you have to rewrite it and rewrite it and then thoroughly edit…
Writing Relationships: Enemies to Lovers.
These types of relationships can be some of the most interesting and enjoyable, both to read and write, because they show us many sides of the same characters and the growth from a hatred to mixed feelings and finally to genuine love and acceptance…
Writing Redemption Arcs.
What is a redemption arc? “Redemption: An act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake.” An act, implying action, which is created by choices, which just happens to be the basis of character development. Some writers confuse redemption arcs with things they are not, and…
Why is passive voice (and past progressive tense) “bad”?
First off, I have to put a disclaimer here because I tend to rope past progressive tense into passive voice, because they both rely on “to be” verbs a lot, and because I’m lazy. I’ll talk about them both separately for once. 1. Passive…
Mary Sue Stories: Why your Mary Sue and Gary Stu should(n’t always) go.
Most of us are quite familiar with the term, but if you’ve heard it passed around without a proper definition, a Mary Sue is a (traditionally female) character who’s known for being flawless. She’s powerful, beautiful, intelligent, more skilled than her peers, gets herself out of every bad…
A Look at Negative Character Development.
What is negative character development? It’s incredibly hard to define. Some writers relate it to moral decline. Some apply it to areas where a character returns to a way of life they had at one point developed out of. Other writers don’t like to…
Describing Nature
(Tips to help you tackle the outdoors without ever leaving your home.) The forest for the trees. When describing any setting, especially potentially spacious settings such as expanses of nature, you have two major components: the big picture (the forest) and the little picture…
Our Bloody Pearl:
After a year of voiceless captivity, a bloodthirsty siren fights to return home while avoiding the lure of a suspiciously friendly and eccentric pirate captain.
