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DAVID WELLINGTON

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Tag: Writing

Posted on September 13, 2017

Dream Logic: Using Surrealism in Fiction

I heard a podcast recently where the guest talked about the Magical Realist novel he was working on. The host asked, "is that just a fantasy novel but you don't want to admit you like geek stuff?" The guest laughed and admitted that was pretty much accurate. Similarly, you hear a lot of people go …

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Posted on September 1, 2017September 1, 2017

From Twee to Grime: Tone Gone Bad

Tone is the psychological setting of your story. It establishes the ethos of your world, that is to say the prevailing philosophy. It is one of the key elements in giving weight and gravity to your story. It's also very easy to get wrong. Wild tone shifts are a problem, of course, though if handled …

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Posted on August 24, 2017

The Shocking: Notes Toward a Theory

We're often told that comedy appeals to our intellectual side--our appreciation of wit and timing--while drama appeals to our emotions. Appealing to one or the other is the way to reach an audience, to create a significant effect in the reader's/viewer's brain that will cause them to be entertained. Either we need to laugh at …

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Posted on August 9, 2017

Theme: The Unintended Parable

I want to share a story about one of my failures as a writer. I intended, once, to write a short story about a woman working in an organ farm. A place where brainless clone bodies are grown in vats, so that their organs can be harvested to save the lives of people waiting for …

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Posted on July 31, 2017

Setting: Don’t Get Lost

Creating a rich and fascinating setting for your story is fun. It's so much fun. And it can be rewarding, too. The more work you put into your setting, the more detail and depth, the more your book will come alive--if the backdrop seethes and breathes, your characters will feel more real, more anchored, and …

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Posted on July 24, 2017

Pacing: Good News and Bad

Pacing might be the most important skill a writer can develop. Pacing is the tempo of your story, the sense of time passing, the sense of things happening in a smooth, organic order. Pacing is everything. Pacing is crucial to plot. It's how you build suspense--how you make your reader care about what happens, and …

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Posted on July 10, 2017July 10, 2017

Writing: Character Motivations

Every character in your story should have a clear motivation. They need a reason to enter the scene, and something they want to accomplish before the scene is over. This goes for a walk-on character who only has one line just as much as it goes for your protagonist and antagonist. If a character has …

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Posted on June 30, 2017June 30, 2017

Writing: The Power of Broad Characters

Everyone claims to like deep, nuanced characters. People who feel real and rich and alive. There's only one problem. They're wrong. If you think of your favorite characters--frankly, any characters you can remember off the top of your head--you'll think of broad, two-dimensional, larger than life heroes and villains and grotesques. Darth Vader. Tarzan. Wily …

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Posted on June 22, 2017June 23, 2017

Writing: Little, Big

This is the excerpt for a placeholder post.

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Sally Jansen was the best and brightest of the astronaut corps–until tragedy struck in deep space, and she returned to Earth in disgrace. Twenty years later an alien vehicle is approaching the solar system–and she’s the only one who can face its terrible mysteries. AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW!

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