by Joe Bunting |
When you’re only just starting out as a writer, there are so many questions to be considered before you even begin: what to write about, the genre, the style, how often you should practice, and many technical ones that keep piling up the more you actually involve in the craft of writing.
Those are things that inevitably hit everyone sooner or later, so the proliferation of writing tips and advice shouldn’t be surprising at all. Most of the literary masters have offered invaluable counsel on the matters. This wide range of writing tips is good because it means there’s a bigger chance that somebody will find another person to relate to.
by Joe Bunting |
Many of our favorite stories have an item that our heroes are attempting to retrieve. Sometimes that item has significance to the plot, like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the titular lost ark ends up getting Indiana Jones out of a precarious situation. And sometimes the item is just an item that the heroes need to find because, well, something needs to run the plot of this thing.
In that case, the item is called a MacGuffin.
by Joe Bunting |
Can contemporary, realistic fiction mix with fantasy?
The quick answer is: Of course! But the more difficult question may be: How?
How does one create a balance between realistic cities and settings verses making up a new and interesting world? Between believable and likeable characters verses amazing, heroic personas?
Are these elements mutually exclusive?
by Joe Bunting |
Have you ever felt purposeless? Most people do at some point in life (e.g. teenage years, teenage wandering, mid-life crisis), and as a rule, it is generally considered to be a down point. But what if there’s good to be drawn out of purposelessness?
by Joe Bunting |
In the age of Twitter and text messages what does it feel like to receive an old-fashioned love letter?
I imagine a curly headed man in his thirties, opening Elizabeth Barrett’s ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese’ and catching his breath as he reads the first lines of Sonnet #33….
