A piece I wrote for the Writer’s Carnival Blog.
Is it ever okay to use profanity in writing? Should be it be avoided at all costs?
What it comes down to is realizing what you are writing and who you are writing for.
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My wife teaches in a predominantly minority populated school, and, as she teaches students who are diagnosed as Emotionally Disturbed, the ratios are skewed even more toward minorities than the general ed. population. She is white. So it probably comes as little surprise that when things don’t go a student’s way, she has, on occasion, been accused of being racist, never mind that she’s treating other minority students differently, based on the student’s personal behavior.
The other day she asked me what her students would think if they knew she was married to a Hispanic. (My wife chose to keep her last name when we married, so it’s not exactly a giveaway). I didn’t have a good answer for her. (more…)
This week’s Chuck Wendig challenge. Proof positive that there is something wrong with me? Or maybe I can, on occassion, embrace my inner surrealist. Still, I would love to know the story behind this photo, why they decided they needed it. Ah well. (more…)
A piece I wrote for the Writer’s Carnival Blog.
Is there such a thing as too much character description? Should you leave some details up to the reader?
Too much detail can be a bad thing. Slamming your reader with a wall of text, describing in minute detail the appearance of the character, what they are wearing, and how they carry themselves can act to derail a narrative. It is as if you can feel the reader’s eyes glassing over, skimming over the text.
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This week’s Chuck Wendig Challenge. This is somewhat familiar ground for me. It would probably be considered a tad adult, so the usual warnings will apply. I’m reasonably happy with how this came out all things considered and any day I write 1,000 new words is a good day in my estimation. (more…)
I have a certain style of character that I tend to write. That type can be described as male, heteronormative, and nominally white. They also tend toward liking knives, cigarettes, and having a drink or three. (more…)
“Ooh, ooh, I know. I’ll write about an evil twin!”
“Yawn. Boring. Done. Very 19th Century.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Ever heard of doppelgangers?”
“I thought that was a D&D monster.”
“Buzzz. Wrong. Try again.”
“Okay, how about a dream sequence? And there’ll be cats! Lots of cats. Only, this time they’ll be good.”
“H.P. Lovecraft called. He wants his story back.”
“Fuck you. Uhm. Okay. How about this. A barbarian, only he’s not all Noble Savage and wants nice things. And, like instead of a loincloth he wears armor.”
“Done and done by Crom! Have you never read any Howard?”
“A master thief who also knows some magic?”
“Leiber.”
“A sickly prince of a decadent civilization?”
“Moorcock.”
“An aged fighter, come back for one more fight?”
“You mean ‘Legend’ by David Gemmel?”
“Fine, fine. What do you think I should write?”
“No idea. But it’s fun to shoot your’s down.”
A fantastic article on whether TV helps or hinders writers.
By Doug Langille
Photo by zero-
Hello, fellow quill-bearers! For your mind-bending pleasure, here is another open-ended dilly of a question:
We’re often told that to be great writers, we must read voraciously. Does the same hold true for television and film? Are there different writing lessons to be learned from watching sitcoms, dramas, and their ilk? What magical insights of word-craft mastery, if any, have you gleaned from the proverbial ‘idiot box’, ‘idiot’s lantern’ and ‘boob tube’?
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The submission process can be a daunting one, even for veteran writers. You’ve poured your blood, sweat and tears into a piece, and now you are sending it out into the great wide world. It doesn’t matter if it’s a poem to an online journal, a non-fiction piece, a short story, or a manuscript submission to an agent; you are opening your writing up to a larger world, and what’s worse, rejection. (more…)
Dark Perceptions 