I recently learned about this from one of my mentors, and it was such a good idea I wanted to share it with you all! You may have heard of writing every day, but what about editing? There's actually a whole host of reasons why you should not only edit every day while you write … Continue reading Why Writers Should Edit Every Morning
When you think of fantasy, what do you normally think of? You might imagine castles, dragons, and wizards. Great battles being fought and complex magic systems. And you would be right! But these are characteristics of all different kinds of fantasy subgenres. High fantasy might have these characteristics, but what makes it stand out from … Continue reading What Is High Fantasy?
I admit I struggled a bit about what to post this week. But then I thought, why not just come up with multiple ideas and put them all in one post? After all, I did say I wanted to come up with sci-fi writing prompts for you all. So, without further ado, here are twenty-five … Continue reading 25 Sci-Fi Writing Prompts
Submitting to literary journals is a tough process. For one, rejection is extremely likely, no matter how experienced you are with writing. For another, writers will experience the steep learning curve of submitting to journals and continuously practicing their craft. But what should your literary journal submissions look like? What do journals look for when … Continue reading 5 Things That Literary Journals Look For
So you want to write fantasy? Good luck. In all seriousness, fantasy is notoriously difficult to write no matter which way you look at it. It's not uncommon for fantasy writers to take years to complete one single book (unless you're Brandon Sanderson, but we don't all have that luxury). Besides that, a major aspect … Continue reading Why Is Fantasy So Hard to Write?
You might think that there aren't a whole lot of speculative writing residencies and workshops for writers in a specific genre. It's true that many residencies focus on allowing all writers to focus on any project they're undertaking. However, several outlets exist for those who write speculative fiction. Speculative writers focus on sci-fi, fantasy, and … Continue reading Best Speculative Writing Residencies and Workshops
When I talked about fantasy subgenres a few articles ago, I mentioned dark fantasy as a subgenre. But what exactly is dark fantasy? Where did it come from and what is its purpose? Dark fantasy often includes "darker" elements in the story, including horror. Often horror and fantasy combine to make dark fantasy, or just … Continue reading What Is Dark Fantasy? A Definition
We all know about tropes. They pop up in any form of writing, and often a hallmark of good writing is a writer's ability to tackle tropes, whether by exceeding the reader's expectations with them or subverting them altogether. Obviously, no genre is immune to any of these, but different tropes appear depending on what … Continue reading Science Fiction Tropes to Subvert
I'll start off by saying that I hate writing the beginning of a book. I can't stop myself from trying to include every detail I think is important or provide as much context as possible to make everything as straightforward as possible. (Clarity is not my strong suit, as Grammarly aptly reminds me even as … Continue reading How to Write A Prologue
