***WARNING: The following will contain a significant spoiler for the film Pacific Rim: Uprising and minor spoilers for a lot of other films*** There's a character in the film who is possessed by an ill-defined alien intelligence, and you know this because at one point he starts talking in a voice rougher and deeper than …
Backstory and Front-Loading
Your characters didn't appear out of the ether, newly created on page one of your book. At least, they shouldn't feel like they did. They had lives before the story starts, families, jobs, religious affiliations, pets. If you're going to make them feel real to the reader, you need to know their backstories. You need …
RIP Stephen Hawking, a Great Writer
Given the effect he had on the world of science and our ability to comprehend our universe, you'll hear a lot on the internet about Stephen Hawking today. He was a truly great scientist, perhaps the most influential since Einstein. His contributions to the fields of physics and astronomy are legendary and immortal. I'd like …
Bad Advice: Write Like Your Parents Are Already Dead
Because, of course, then you'll be liberated from the fear of offending them. Or you can write about them, even better, right? You can write about how crazy they were or how they treated you or what they did to keep you from writing. Right? It's true that writers need to be a little fearless …
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Politics in Genre Writing
Short answer? Go for it. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You've probably heard someone tell you this by now. That they don't want "politics" in science fiction, or horror, or Disney Princess fanfic. Of course we all know what they really mean. They don't want you to write anything that disagrees with their personal …
Bad Advice: Single Biome Worlds
It's one of the great cliche responses to science fiction. "Earth has dozens of different biomes, but every planet in sci fi is just one thing, either it's all desert or all frozen or..." It's easy to see why this bothers so many people watching science fiction movies. It's very true that Earth has a …
Love Stories
For Valentine's day, I thought I'd write down a few thoughts on one of the hardest things in fiction--writing effective love stories. This is one of those things that's so much easier to do in a screenplay. Of course Trinity falls in love with Neo--have you seen him? He looks just like Keanu Reeves! In …
When You’re Stuck: Things to Try
There are days when you just can't write. You can have the world's best idea, be sitting in the world's best writing chair... and nothing comes. When it feels like every sentence you put down just takes you farther from what you wanted to say. And you know what? Sometimes there is no solution, except …
Bad Advice: Static Protagonists
Everyone knows that your characters need to go through arcs. They need to change, or grow, or learn a lesson, or discover something about themselves before the story's over. Don't believe it. Plenty of great stories are led by static characters. Most writing guides will insist that every character you create needs to be dynamic …
