Posts belonging to Category Concepts
Posted by Ravyn on June 18, 2013
Originally posted August 12, 2010.
One of the biggest problems with having four or five people operating in the same scene, regardless of its type, is the risk that the better-imaged ones will take over and the less-definite ones will get lost in the shuffle. A couple days ago, UZ asked how to [...]
Categories: Concepts, Dialogue, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Technique |
Tags: combat, conversations, group scenes, keeping track of characters, reprise, roleplaying, writing | 
1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on June 17, 2013
Originally posted on August 11, 2010.
What’s the difference between conversation and combat?
I found myself asking that of one of my friends, while thinking about UZ’s recent question on keeping all participants in a conversation involving more than four characters at once. I have difficulty with that sort of thing too, so I didn’t [...]
Categories: Concepts, Cross-discipline, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Player Advice, Technique |
Tags: combat, comparisons, concepts, conversation, group scenes, reprise, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on November 20, 2012
Yesterday, I talked about building a world around characters, rather than building enough of a world to mold characters into and moving outward from there. I’ve been toying with this recently, and I’ve found a pretty good sequence for trying to grow outward from one or two characters to a plot and a world.
I start [...]
Categories: Characterization, Characters in the world, Concepts, For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Plot, Technique, World-building |
Tags: concepts, plot, Technique, World-building, writing | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on November 1, 2012
This is the last of the UZ guest posts; regular posts will resume Friday night/Saturday morning.
Even as I am dishonest in fiction, so I am dishonest in most forms of composition; most readers will have noticed several narrative techniques that I’ve used in these posts. Not least of these techniques is the [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: guest posts, metatext, Technique, UZ, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 30, 2012
UZ’s guest posts continue.
Nothing exposes the comforting lies of fiction more than analysis by the reader, which is why we avoid this as much as we can. One avenue to failure in this respect is to become so absorbed in an idea that you become uncritical of your own work, and [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: guest posts, metatext, Technique, UZ, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 29, 2012
UZ’s guest posts continue!
There is a form of dishonesty that has gained popularity in recent writing, which for lack of a better term I will call the Broken Bridge technique. This is where the story presents a question that feels compelling, puts off addressing it and ultimately fails to answer it, but [...]
Categories: Concepts, Exposition, For Writers, Plot, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: guest posts, metatext, Technique, UZ, writing | 2 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 28, 2012
There are things that we shouldn’t generally talk about in fiction. It’s not that we are literally unable, or that we mustn’t because of some moral obligation. Rather, the reason is that we’re trying to get our point across – the lunar disco and monster boyfriend part – and if we let these other things [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style, World-building |
Tags: guest posts, metatext, Technique, UZ, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 27, 2012
UZ’s guest posts continue.
My background in fantasy and the weird means that I often write about upsetting things; I’ve discussed some of these in the past with our illustrious host. When we write about wondrous things – that’s really our mandate in fantasy – often we write about scale. The fifty [...]
Categories: Concepts, Description, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: guest posts, metatext, Technique, UZ, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 26, 2012
A continuation of UZ’s series of guest posts, begun yesterday.
Most writers who believe in the natural process will ask – why lie? If writing is supposed to be communication, shouldn’t we communicate what we actually feel is right? My response, inadequate as it may seem, is that this isn’t the only [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: guest posts, metatext, Technique, UZ, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on October 25, 2012
This is the first in a series of guest posts written by UZ–thank you so much!
I am a “writer”, an unpublished author who makes text for others to read in the full knowledge that, for the most part, no one will ever read it. I do this, ironically, out of love for my [...]
Categories: Concepts, For Writers, Technique, Voice and Style |
Tags: guest posts, metatext, Technique, UZ, writing | 3 Comments »