General Writing

  1. My Universe

    My universe is filled to the brim. It has matter and energy that can change characteristics, it has gods, immortals, and of course, mortals, plenty of them. The humans in my universe occupy around thirty three galaxies called The Spherium. A superstate. They share their space with alien allies, and hostiles, and subjugated species. Spherian architecture is inspired by our classical architecture. Artificial space structures, such as cities, exist that can be as large as small galaxies....
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  2. Gravy's Tips for Novel Writing - Part 1

    #1 - It's okay to be a pantser AND plotter. For years, I wrote novels with NO guide at all. But, that led me to rambling and veering off to focus on character development instead of plot development. In the last few years though, I got frustrated with my lack of ability of complete a story, because I was always veering off into a side-plot. That's when I decided to give plotting a chance. I read the book Outlining Your Novel by K. M. Weiland it changed the way I viewed at plotting. I used...
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  3. Bitter Pills to Swallow

    There’s a way to accept it and there’s a way to reject it. If you ask for critique, someone will give it and it may not be a way you hope to hear. This is a bitter pill I’ve had to learn to swallow many times over the course of my childhood and adulthood. Just like you don’t have to read and comment on somebody’s post, I don’t have to read or respond to someone’s critique. While I’ve always tried to be grateful for any effort put into helping me improve my work, I’ve also had to learn to...
  4. Definitely journalism...

    It wasn't an easy decision... I had been working on writing a fictional story for years. But I started to get the feeling that it was silly. Writing this large, deep fictional world that I wanted people to spend their time digging into. For what? It began to feel immoral. Like I was feeding readers too much candy. I just want to write about real things. I want to learn about the world the way Galileo learned about the world. The real world. And if possible, I want to teach it. Of...
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  5. Ridiculous

    So I thought it was a good idea to post a short bit of what my fictional universe is and what it contains on Facebook. Just to gather some feedback and to see what people thought about my ideas without any story attached. Of course I was given a mixed response, some seemed to like it, others pointed out that it was nothing new, and some seemed to think it was absolutely ridiculous. It was a mixed bag to put it simply. I asked the person who said that all the stuff in my universe had been...
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  6. The Cities of My World

    Imagine a particle that can change shape, colour, and other attributes. A particle that does not decay in time. Now imagine a city built from this particle. Its marble columns stretching as far as the skyscrapers they adorn. Ornaments and details that can change from being blue to green within a single hour, or any other colour. Think if such a city took inspiration from our renaissance. Murals that are alive and move like a cinematic movie, all telling their own little stories in...
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  7. Layered Democratic Counciliary

    In my universe, there exists a vast number of civilisations. The human civilisation is called the Spherium. It is a layered democratic counciliary. Meaning it has various councils of different importance and influence levels. At the bottom, you have the star or planet/moon councils. They govern their local stellar bodies through certain councils that convene to discuss important local matters. A council at this level can consist of all the countries or local governments that exist on a...
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  8. Videos on Writing Craft

    Every now and then I run across a video I really like about writing and I try to figure out where on the board or my blog I can post it. So I'm making this thread. Ok wow, I guess that covers it. Here: Three verbs per sentence, and contrast: Spend Five Thousand hours revising your novel??! To become a better writer you must change your life: A lot of these are going to be his videos.
  9. An Idea for Dealing with Crime and Gangsters

    Hit them over the head with an electrified morning star (a type of modernized medieval weapon) and conscript them into an auxiliary armed service. Gangsters in Sweden, I believe, are resourceful haters of normality. They seek the life they do, not necessarily because of poverty, but because they want to live on the edge. They want to feel powerful and relevant. In our big society, feeling relevant can be a difficult achievement. There are millions of people who all seek their way in life....
  10. First jokes

    This took me roughly 45 mins to write these jokes. This is my first attempt at writing basically anything. Let me know what you think and how you think I could make them better. Do you give a shit what happens to your body after you die? Fuck that I don’t. Bury me, cremate me, cook me and feed me to the neighbors, I don’t care. Shove a stick up my ass and wield me around like a puppet for a goof at Halloween time I like how enough people have choked themselves to death while jerking off...
  11. Time, time, time

    On our neighborhood walks my wife and I used to walk past a big old deciduous tree (as I recall, though it may have been a pine). A couple years back, though, it dropped its biggest branch and some others in a storm, and the property owners had it removed. All of it, stump and all. This year when we walked past that spot, there is absolutely no indication that the tree was ever there. Once the next generation of property owners move in, no one will recall that tree. It existed, but now...
  12. A Phantom for My Opera?

    Some days when I doubt myself and my abilities to write I think of employing a ghost writer. But in a bit of a different setup. I will write the first draft and then the potential ghost writer can refine it to a readable/enjoyable state. I love storytelling, and I love the creative process. But my produce just isn't up to par most of the time. Training is like trying to teach an old dog new tricks. I read, I watch, I practice... I learn? Yeah, sometimes I do learn. But I will continue to...
  13. Clarity, Power, and Discovery in Writing

    This is actually stuff I've known and been doing (and promoting in here) for a long time. I usually talk about it in relation to journaling and what I call 'writing about a story before you write the story.' In each case they're ways of exploring, structuring, and developing your thoughts about a subject. You can also do that in freewriting if you keep it to a subject and don't just slap down pure gibberish (which is an extreme form of freewriting). I often start a writing session with some...
  14. Something to say?

    Must a writer always have some underlying message in their fictional works? Or can they exist as mere entertainment and information? I don't know. Personally, I write to entertain and bring people to another reality, another universe. But even if I don't consciously implement messages, they are still there. In the shadows of my words. There is a suicide in one of my works and it seems portrayed like a pointless death. So, is that my eternal message about suicides? Not at all. I hold no...
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