C is for conflict
Sin #2: No conflict! It is one of the most important rules of fiction writing, one that is universal for all books regardless of genre or scope or audience: A character must grow through conflict. I’ve lost count of the…
Category rant
B is for back story
Sin #1: Incorrect use of back story Unless your book opens with a birth scene then your character will most definitely have a back story. They’ve been around longer than five minutes and will have done and seen a lot of…
A is for Aggggggghhhh!!
For every looming deadline, missed target, failed word count, grammatical error and even that bloody time when you just can’t think of another word for “…..”. Aggggggghhhh!! It’s the best way to explain that overwhelming sensation when you feel like…
The Trough of DOOM™
I’m hitting that dreaded point again… The trough of doom…no that doesn’t sound right. The depression of depression? The low of lowness? Ok, sod it I’m sticking with The Trough of DOOM™ You know how it is being a writer…
Zombie Week 2011: Final day!
Zombies, zombies everywhere and not a brain to chew… Thank you to everyone who had commented on my blog this week, it was great to get some feedback on certain elements on the zombie worlds…and now for something really boring!…
Thursday of the dead
Back to the mechanics of my novel today and a little rant about plot vs. characters. I never really liked the idea that a book was character driven OR plot driven. It’s a common idea in the writing community but…
Midweek zombie goodness: Wednesday
So we’ve covered traditional vs. ‘wacky’ zombies, scientific explanations, weapons, the realm of believability, rotten ‘jelly’ like corpses chasing you down the street and even the best gravy to serve brains with…apparently its milk gravy! Now I’d like to move…
Tuesday’s child is full of…BRAIIIINNSS!
Ok, Tuesday. Not bad as days go, at least it’s not Monday right? But in the land of the zombie every day is the same. Get up, clear the bodies off the lawn, smash some skulls in, decapitate of few…
Zombies love Mondays
So zombies…grr…brains…and other assorted tropes. That’s right, I said it! TROPES! And stereotypes and clichés and axioms. I’ve mentioned the unmentionable in the zombie community, whispered the unspoken truth that breaks the code of zombie lovers worldwide (that’s people who…