Achillean Romance with Fangs
(And why hinges rock.) Please excuse me while I assign already well-loved terms new meanings for my own benefit. (This is to say, writing terminology means something slightly different or goes by slightly different terms depending on who you ask. Two of the definitions I use here are based ones that stuck with me, while […]
PART ONE: the basics. PART TWO: the nitty gritty. PART THREE: common pitfalls and easy fixes. Here we’ll cover some common situations where writing respectful non-binary characters can be trickier. Writing Non-human Non-binary characters. Non-human non-binary characters aren’t inherently disrespectful to non-binary people, but it can easily become negative representation when there are no non-binary […]
Visit PART ONE: the basics first! PART TWO: the nitty gritty. Non-binary in relation to Presentation. What are we talking about here when we say presentation? Presentation in relation to gender is how a person chooses to look, dress, and act in relation to their culture’s gender norms. A person who wears dresses and makeup, […]
PART ONE: the basics. Disclaimer: While this guide is written by a non-binary person in collaboration with many other non-binary writers and readers, it does not necessarily cover the views of all people within the non-binary community. First off, what is this thing you call non-binary? Non-binary genders are any gender identity that isn’t covered […]
First off, you have to know these two things: Your first draft of your first book will be terrible. All your favorite authors of all time wrote a terrible first draft of their first book too. Probably a terrible second and third draft, maybe even a terrible second and third book. This is okay. It can […]
The inability to write what you’ve outlined plagues many of us, and it has many potential causes, some of which have workarounds, while others don’t. Here’s just a couple: 1. You don’t know your characters well enough when you outline, so when you write them, they make unexpected choices. Solution: Develop your characters through writing before […]
(A continuation of the feverish analysis in this post.) Let’s now consider a reader who has no idea what an elephant is. We the writer want to present our reader with words aligned in just the right way that we paint a picture of an elephant that will let the reader perfectly imagine it exactly as we […]
There are a lot of odd rules floating around about descriptions (some of which are useful and others… not so much), but to form writing theories that any writer can apply to their own work without losing their personal style, we often need to step back from the “rules” and examine things more broadly. There […]
I’ll tell you a secret: I’m deathly afraid that no one actually likes my writing. (Which is a little silly when my debut is receiving a few hundred five star reviews for every one star equivalent, but brains aren’t always very logical). So if you’re doubting your own writing and whether people enjoy it, you aren’t […]
There’s a hot take circulating lately that “some villains don’t deserve to have a redemption arc.” But I don’t believe this. No villain deserves a redemption arc. But every villain could have one, if they tried, if they worked towards it, if they’re written well in both their understanding of their wrongs and their dedication to being a better person. No villain deserves a […]
