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So we all know that typos are the worst! Terrible! They eat babies! They are AIDS! Etc, etc.
Now that that disclaimer is out there, there are some typos that I secretly love. And those are the ones that (unintentionally) completely change the meaning of the sentence because they end up being a totally different word. Those can be hilarious.
It’s interesting to note that past and overexplored themes keep coming up in new writing, like: world wars, civil wars, racial discrimination, idealized love affairs, and romanticized train journeys etc. etc.
All the mentioned topics are interesting and it seems they have a bigger appeal because they happened in the past, a time marked in literature, history, film. Yet, only because those times seem far away and something not personally witnessed it doesn’t mean the present should be annulled. You own the present, and living it should consequentially shape up majority of the stories you write. What seems boring to you now may sound intriguing to the future generations.
One of my favorite pastimes is discovering real-life situations that, if seen in a fiction story, I would find totally unbelievable.
I recently read a novel that, on the surface, was nearly perfect. It had an action packed plot, a love triangle, and a feel good ending.
However, as I read, I noticed that every time a major conflict in the story would come up, the author would back off. She would briefly show the conflict, but then skip on to the next scene, leaving you, the reader, to sort everything out. It was almost as if the author knew she needed conflict, but was so uncomfortable with it, she wanted to slip the conflict into the story and get out as soon as possible.
Some of the best stories in history have words that the authors made up themselves. Think about Harry Potter and the words “muggle” and “squib.” Think about the Lord of the Rings. J. R. R. Tolkien not only created words, he created languages.
Have you ever thought about creating a new word to use in your story? Here are two ways to create a new word.
One of my roommates and I started watching Downton Abbey last week, and within four evenings had finished the first two seasons and are almost all caught up. It’s a really engrossing show, for those of you who haven’t seen it, and Maggie Smith is a treasure (and a Golden Globe winner).
However, between the two of us, we were able to predict a fair number of the plot twists. It’s no fault of Downton’s writers, to be sure. When you consume pop culture, whether it be in the form of books, TV, music, or film, you’re bound to catch on to patterns in the storytelling.
Have you ever had one of those encounters in which someone says something and you are rendered speechless? After the dust settles and you’ve parted ways, you come up with at least half a dozen appropriate (or not so appropriate) responses.
Hindsight is 20/20, they say. But in writing, we all have a chance to relive conversations, confrontations, interactions, and situations—and change the outcome. Through the magic of fiction, we have the opportunity to do what we wish we had done.
After over a year of thinking and planning, in November my friend Jeff Goins and I launched Story Cartel, a site to help authors share their stories with readers.
Do you want to grow? The only way to get better at your craft is to keep going even when things get hard.
We’re all familiar with similes and metaphors, right? These can be great ways to infuse your writing with some punch and visual pizzazz. However, sometimes in the process of getting that metaphor written down, something happens, and the plane that was supposed to quickly and efficiently connect the object of your description and your metaphor ends up going all Oceanic Flight 815 on you and crashes somewhere on a remote island where weird things happen and you’re trying to get rescued, but have also kind of resigned yourself to the fact that you’re way off course and no one will be looking for you.
In other words, the last part of the previous paragraph is something you generally don’t want to do. I’m not aware of a specific literary term for a rambling or forgotten metaphor, but you generally want to avoid them.
