Balance between realism and imagination matters. For if your entire reality is a completely new one, your readers won’t recognize themselves in it anymore; but if your reality is too close to the known world – well, it’s not science fiction any longer then, is it?
Tag: Ride the Pen
Jan 12 2016
The Truth About Harnessing Creativity
Wherever you look, the world is held together by two polar opposites that complement and nurture each other, a Yin and a Yang. And in writing, it’s no different. Whether your writing output will shine or you can throw it in the bin will be determined by the Yin and the Yang of your creative work.
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Dec 14 2015
Writing Kick@$$ Action Scenes–Hook! Cross! T.K.O.
It’s Batman chasing Superman through James Bond’s porcelain collection. Broken glass, bones and promises everywhere. But here’s the problem: It reads like an academic lecture about 17th century German philosophy. If the style can’t convey your action in an edgy and dramatic way, even the most wicked scene structure won’t help.
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Dec 04 2015
How to Sneak In Any Amount of Information & Maintain the Fictive Dream
As an editor I have some pretty standard red flags I look for, but a REALLY common blunder is the dreaded information dump. Some genres are more prone to this than others. Science fiction and fantasy can be particularly vulnerable. How DO you keep the pace of the story and still relay about the prophecy, the starship, the dragons and the dragons prophesied to have starships?
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Nov 23 2015
3 Simple Tricks to Create a Character OH SO Different From YOU
Have you ever written a character you thought you couldn’t portray well because he was too different from you? In this post, Alex lays out three secrets on how to make a character like that come to life.
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International Association of Professional Writers & Editors
Featured Books
Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital Age
What is a brand? A platform? Why do we need one? How do we get one? Better still how can we create a brand with the power of driving book sales and still have time left to do THE most important part of our job? Writing more books.
This book demystifies branding and social media and harnesses the same passion and imagination we authors use to write books, then uses that to locate and cultivate a devoted fan base. The methods taught in this book can weather any technological upheaval, and is virtually fad-proof. The new cool social site might change, but your platform will remain.
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About Kristen Lamb
Kristen Lamb is the author of the definitive guide to social media and branding for authors, Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World. She’s also the author of #1 best-selling books We Are Not Alone—The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer. She’s just released her highly acclaimed debut mystery-thriller The Devil’s Dance.
Kristen has written over twelve hundred blogs and her site was recognized by Writer’s Digest Magazine as one of the Top 101 Websites for Writers. Her branding methods are responsible for selling millions of books and used by authors of every level, from emerging writers to mega authors.