Tag: fantasy

  • The Incredible Power of This Question: What Comes Next?

    The Incredible Power of This Question: What Comes Next?

    Here’s a quote from Orson Scott Card, the author of Ender’s Game: So as you look at your bogged down first draft, look to see how much of your effort is spent on withholding information, and then examine whether your reader has any reason to care about what’s going on as long as that information…

  • Author as Publisher?

    Richard Curtis in a recent EReads post asks a provocative question: Do authors make good publishers? The question is in the context of ebooks, keep that in mind. They point to high-profile authors who have tried this route this year: Cory Doctorow, Seth Godwin and J.A. Conrath. Curtis concludes that the services of a publisher…

  • New Life for OP Novels?

    New Life as an E-Book? The Wayfinder by Darcy Pattison When a novel goes out of print, it’s sad. There are many what-ifs: What if the publisher had done thus and so? A different cover? A different promotion? What if I had done thus and so? More promotion? In the end, novels run their course.…

  • Novel Pacing=Constant Change

    Finishing up the series on plot: We’ve talked about the outline level of plot, plotting with scenes and now we’re at a finer granular level as we talk about pacing of a novel. Pacing Helps Plot Succeed Nick Lowe, in his article, The Well-Tempered Plot Device, criticizes many well-loved fantasy novels because of their use…

  • American Fantasy: The Underneath

    Distinguished American Fantasy 10/15/2008 update: The Underneath has been nominated for a National Book Award for Young People’s Literature! Winners will be announced on November 19, 2008. There has been much discussion of The Underneath by Kathi Appelt as a possible candidate for the Newbery Award this year. I believe it’s a strong candidate because…