Posts belonging to Category For Writers
Posted by Ravyn on April 24, 2012
Into every plot, a few regrettable–sometimes even downright stupid–actions tend to fall. Let’s face it, they make for better conflict, and sometimes half the fun is watching the character or characters pick up their own messes. On the other hand, GMs run the risk of players just not taking the bait, and writers run the [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Plot, Tactics, Technique |
Tags: foolhardy choices, plot, roleplaying, tactics, writing | 
1 Comment »
Posted by Ravyn on April 23, 2012
My third assignment in the paranormal romance class (bet you thought I’d forgotten about it!) involved getting a big picture together—or more specifically, a plan for getting a book finished. This left me with a few issues, mostly based on the fact that I really didn’t want the first novel-length piece I finished since high [...]
Categories: For Writers |
Tags: planning, Ravyn vs. Paranormal Romance, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on April 4, 2012
The second unit in the online paranormal romance class was on backstory. Nothing new; I think by now I’ve got a pretty decent handle on the importance of backstory driving a character. Just a little.
So it was sort of, “nod, nod, nod, are we there yet, nod…” and then I got to the assignment. [...]
Categories: For Writers |
Tags: backstory, Ravyn vs. Paranormal Romance, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 26, 2012
Last week, I continued my journey into the dark and dangerous alleys of paranormal romance with an early assignment on suspension of disbelief—or rather, half of an early assignment. The other half got my attention. Take something from my ‘ridiculous’ list. Write a two-paragraph summary of a PR plot centered around that idea.
Dang. She’s good.
The [...]
Categories: For Writers |
Tags: Ravyn vs. Paranormal Romance, suspension of disbelief, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 22, 2012
Yesterday, I listed off a number of elements and prompts that give me major difficulties in my writing and GMing—but while understanding a problem is helpful, knowledge along isn’t enough to get through it. What can we do with knowing what we can’t stand?
Some people just deal with their discomfort zones by just plain avoiding [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Technique |
Tags: GMing, intimidating subjects, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 21, 2012
The thing about writing or GMing for an audience is that we can’t always create exactly what we want—and more, that sometimes our audience, well-meaning or otherwise, will steer us right to those things that we consider our worst points. There’s no way to fix it but practice, really, and no way to figure out [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, Technique |
Tags: GMing, intimidating subjects, writing | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 20, 2012
The first thing we covered in the online class on paranormal romance I found myself taking was suspension of disbelief. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that it would need to be explained; I take suspension of disbelief pretty seriously, to the point where it occasionally prevents me from performing what would otherwise be [...]
Categories: For Writers, World-building |
Tags: Ravyn vs. Paranormal Romance, suspension of disbelief, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 15, 2012
I’m not much of an urban fantasy person… mostly, anyway. I enjoy what I read, sure (though it’s probably safest not to get me started on my love-hate relationship with the Dresden Files), but I’ve only had one must-follow writer for non-YA UF since I started understanding what delineated the genre, and that one I [...]
Categories: For Writers, World-building |
Tags: genre, personal opinion, urban fantasy, World-building, writing | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 14, 2012
The toughest part of creating something and releasing it to an audience is dealing with the audience’s reaction to it. It’s easy to imagine that we are going to be The Best Creator Ever and that nothing we do is every going to mess up, but it never works out that way; there’s always something [...]
Categories: Feedback, For Roleplayers, For Writers, Technique |
Tags: criticism, roleplaying, writing | No Comments »
Posted by Ravyn on March 13, 2012
Most of us have seen something that qualifies as Serious Business. It’s not going to change the world, it’s not life or death, it might not even seem like anything more than a simple pastime, but to the people who care about it—the football fans who close their businesses when the two state colleges’ teams [...]
Categories: For Roleplayers, For Writers, GM Advice, Plot, Technique, Thematics, World-building |
Tags: plot, roleplaying, serious business, World-building, writing | 2 Comments »