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More Drama, Less Action

I am currently getting feedback from my brilliant Beta readers on Bindcrafter, and the question as to whether certain sections are too slow has cropped up. But what do we mean by too slow? Assuming you haven’t added extraneous characters or plotlines which are frustrating to readers, most likely they mean it’s dragging. They don’t …

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A nod to Vogon poetry

What have I learnt on this globe of rock and water floating through the Cosmos? Not much about physics, obviously, but that aside, enjoy my wisdom, fellow humans, while you scoff at my high opinion of my opinions.   About the world There are more good people than bad, avoid trouble, don’t be sad. The …

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What’s so good about Designated Survivor?

OK, not strictly SFF related, but we’ll call it a related look at narrative structure and move on, shall we … In descending order of brilliance: Kiefer Sutherland (who by the way has a lot of names – Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland) The cheesy dialogue The plot – you don’t need to …

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Star Trek Discovery

Why Discovery is the best Star Trek to date, and so much better than Star Wars … What’s not to love about the new Star Trek? Discovery combines all the best elements from previous Star Trek series – ‘early’ tech (but not so early that it’s boring), at least one alien officer (arguably more), a …

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Cheats for writing great dialogue

Here are some tips for writing better dialogue which I have picked up through my many failures at writing anything decent. Answer a question with a question. Have your character go off-topic. Don’t forget your action beats. Minimum every four lines of dialogue. Be careful when using ‘word sounds’ instead of action beats. Write: //He …

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A trope too far …

In reverse order, from pet peeves to pulling my hair out. Saving the world. Who cares about the world? It’s every man or woman for themselves. Magic wands, or anything that resembles one. Includes lanterns, staffs, amulets, cooking pots, car batteries … Farm boys. Unless referring to the human cloning of young males on an …

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The Joys of Olde England

Surely, there is no excuse for Fantasy authors in the UK. We live in an ancient country, full of mystical stone circles and haunted houses. You only have to turn a corner to see the spot where some thousand-year-old monarch had their head lopped off. Battles? Don’t come over here telling us about battles. Forget …

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Well! That! Is! A lot of exclaiming!

Here’s my take on the never ending debate over our friend the exclamation mark. Personally, I find comments such as ‘never use it’ insane. Advice to use it three times at most in 100,000 words (Elmore Leonard) – impossible!   So, here’s a simple rule I use – maybe you can too.   If, at …

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