I wrote about Margaret LaFleur's "All's Well" and a gorgeous moment beyond words, when subtext bubbles to the surface.
https://loft.org/writers-block-blog/alls-well-and-dialogue-beyond-words
#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #AmWriting #Subtext #Bookstodon #Dialog #ReadingLikeAWriter
I wrote about Daniel Tam-Claiborne's novel, TRANSPLANTS and how intimacy and connection (and sex) can make fantastic things happen in fiction.
https://loft.org/writers-block-blog/transplants-and-change-through-intimacy
#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #Transplants #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #Connection
I wrote about Amanda Lee Koe's phenomenal SISTER SNAKE, (and couldn't stop myself from a light musing on fairy tales because you know me).
https://loft.org/writers-block-blog/sister-snake-amanda-lee-koe-and-time-magic
#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #SisterSnake #ReadingLikeAWriter #FairyTale #Folklore #FolkTale #TimeMagic #Anachronism #WritingCraft #Books
These gargoyles aren’t worried about explaining themselves to a human reader; they’re just trying to survive.
I wrote about Tara Campbell's fantastic CITY OF DANCING GARGOYLES and an opening that unsettles.
https://loft.org/writers-block-blog/city-dancing-gargoyles-and-decentering-humanity
#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #ReadingLikeAWriter #Beginnings #DystopianSciFi #Fiction #Bookstodon #WritingCraft
Here's something amazing we've been working on in Lit!Commons:
#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #LitCommons #ReadingLikeAWriter #Flash #CloseReading #Writing
Here's me writing about one of my favorite things again...
How do YOU sustain wonder (or horror) in your fiction?
#WritingConversations #WritingCommunity #Writing #Wonder #Horror #IsabelYap #NeverHaveIEver #ReadingLikeAWriter
I wrote about an interesting prologue. So let's talk about prologues!
Not whether you love them or hate them--but what they are uniquely able to do. What's the difference between a prologue and a first chapter? What is the function of a prologue? And what's the fun of it too? How do you think about whether to include one?
#WritingConversations #WritingCommunity #prologue #ReadingLikeAWriter #WhatHappenedtoRuthyRamiriz #ClaireJimenez #Writing #FirstPage #BookOpenings
An aspect I'd also love to talk about it is how you do something unusual without it seeming accidental--at least to your first readers. When you play with something like perspective, workshops and beta readers are so likely to get on your case. But it's really worth defying them.
#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #Writing #POV #Omniscient #FirstPerson #Narration #Jackal #ReadingLikeAWriter #Horror
This time I wrote about JACKAL (by Erin E. Adams) and a really fun and unusual POV. It's an "I" that hides from you, knows way too much, and emerges in a deliciously creepy way.
What are your favorite strange POVs?
#WritingCommunity #WritingConversations #Writing #POV #Omniscient #FirstPerson #Narration #Jackal #ReadingLikeAWriter #Horror
This craft column is about Susie Yang's WHITE IVY and a whole lot of tools to make physical description alive and vibrant and even important to the story.
What are your favorite techniques for physical description of characters? And what makes you like a physical description when you read?
#WritingConversations #WritingCommunity #Bookstodon #PhysicalDescription #ReadingLikeAWriter #WhiteIvy #WritingCraft
I wrote about a story from Farah Ali's The People Want to Live and the way a simple description can come to life through the layering of seeming contradiction.
#Books #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #Writing #WritingCraft #FarahAli #ThePeopleWantToLive #Description #Layering #Contradiction #Characterization #TheLoft
I wrote about the opening chapter to Erika T. Wurth's WHITE HORSE and how it pulls together the mundane and the creepy to both situate & get the story moving--and also do weirder things like evoke the uncanny & make brain explosions.
#Books #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #WritingCommunity #BookOpenings #FirstPages #WritingCraft #ErikaTWurth #WhiteHorse #Horror #GenerationalTrauma #Monsters #Ghosts
Here's something I wrote a while ago about about a really fascinating POV and THE INCENDIARIES by R.O. Kwon.
#Books #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #WritingCommunity #POV #Perspective #WritingCraft #ROKwon #TheIncendiaries
This time I wrote about Paul Yoon's SNOW HUNTERS and how a passage that layers contradictory emotions can get us to _feel_ in an amazing way, creating an experience beyond what can be articulated.
#WritingCommunity #ReadingLikeAWriter #TheLoft #WritersofMastodon #Bookstodon #WritingCraft #SnowHunters #PaulYoon #LayeringEmotion #paradox #contradiction
Since we've all been talking about how to find and develop interesting characters, I feel like sharing an old craft post about a fun way to think about describing them.
It's about Silvia Moreno-Garcia's (amazing!) CERTAIN DARK THINGS and physical description that is really alive and thrilling.
#WritingCommunity #ReadingLikeAWriter #TheLoft #WritersofMastodon #Bookstodon #WritingCraft #PhysicalDescription #Vampires #SilviaMorenoGarcia #CertainDarkThings
I wrote this a while back about MONGRELS (by Stephen Graham Jones) and the sense of wonder, which is something I'm absurdly fascinated by.
How do we create--and hold!--such a fleeting sensation? I love thinking about it.
And I'd love to learn your ideas about other ways to play with it.
#WritingCommunity #ReadingLikeAWriter #TheLoft #WritersofMastodon #Bookstodon #WritingCraft
#StephenGrahamJones #WereWolves #horror #wonder
This time I wrote about Megan Gidding's The Women Could Fly and a moment that is small but truly thrilling. It's about subtext and landscape and a weirding of the way energy flows within a passage.
Also, the book is magnificent.
https://bit.ly/WomenFlyLandscapeReflect
#WritingCommunity #WritersofMastodon #Bookstodon #ReadingLikeAWriter #Landscape #Reflection #Subtext #Magic #Writing #TheLoft #TheWomenCouldFly
Here's something I wrote about The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (which I loved). It's about a scene written out of order to create a sort of ghost of itself, but I also talk about scene building more generally--how it's usually done, the effect that has, and what can happen when you choose something different. (To be clear, I like all ways!)
https://bit.ly/GhostBrideOutOrder
#WritingCommunity #Writing #SceneBuilding #WritingCraft #ReadingLikeaWriter #GhostBride
