The ‘how to’s’ of world-building

Posted on by Little Blue Balloon

Great world building advice 🙂

Richie Billing

If you’d like more writing tips you can get my eBook, This Craft We Call Writing: Volume One, for free by completing the form below. Inside you’ll find over 150 pages covering everything from dialogue, characterisation, prose and plotting, to writing fight scenes, viewpoint, and much more!

“I propose to speak about fairy-stories, though I am aware that this is a rash adventure. Faërie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold.”

J.R.R. Tolkien

We read stories to become lost in new and unexplored worlds, ones filled with possibilities, mysteries, and oddities.  The world in which a story is set is important to any tale, particularly so when it comes to science fiction and fantasy.

This post will first explore the how to’s of world-building, and then the how to’s of revealing your crafted world through the story.

How do…

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How to Sharpen the First Sentence in Every Chapter

Posted on by Little Blue Balloon

Great writing tips 🙂

A Writer's Path

 

by Carolyn Dennis-Willingham

 

We all know that the first sentence or two in a novel needs to, not only grab a reader’s attention, but flip them out of bed, melt them into their recliners, or make them forget the lasagna in the oven.

Like you, I’ve written so many first lines for my novels, I could add them up and the page count would be the same as the novel itself.

They, editors, agents, writing experts say:

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How Not to Write: The Anti-Writing Writing Method — Drew Chial

Posted on by Little Blue Balloon

So your writing is flowing too fast. The spark of inspiration has set your mind ablaze and your fingers hurt from typing. Stephen King says you should write 3,000 words a day and you’re lapping him: 6,000 words a day, 9,000 words a day. You’re so prolific your beta readers feel like you’re swamping them […]

via How Not to Write: The Anti-Writing Writing Method — Drew Chial

The importance of tension and pace

Posted on by Little Blue Balloon

Some great reminders 🙂

Into Another World

This post is the tenth in a series about writing a novel. You can check out the list of past topics at the end of this post.

Before we get into writing your novel, I wanted to talk about two important elements – tension and pace. Understanding both of these will help you write better scenes in your story.

Tension

Tension is the element of a novel that evokes worry, anxiety, fear or stress for both the reader and the characters.

One way to think about it is you are raising the stakes for your character, so he or she has to work to get what he or she wants. And this shouldn’t be easy. Basically, you want to keep saying no to your characters so that the conflict appears unsolvable. The more at stake for your character, the more emotions he feels about situations and events.

Tension can take…

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New Releases: 9/26

Posted on by Little Blue Balloon

BookPeople

Provenance

Ann Leckie

Provenance is the latest novel from Ann Leckie, author of the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, and British Science Fiction Award-winning novel Ancillary Justice, and its Locus Award-winning sequel Ancillary Sword. Her new sci-fi novel is set in the same world as the Ancillary novels, but follows a new character; a powerful woman on a mission to regain the priceless artifacts of her people. Her first two books were bookseller favorites (including first-floor inventory manager Raul’s and our old kids’ event coordinator Demi’s!), and we can’t wait to dive into this new one! It’s on our to-read shelf, but what we’re really excited about is Ann Leckie here at BookPeople, Sunday, October 1st at 5PM! We know you won’t want to miss this event!

Five-Carat Soul

James McBride

The latest from highly celebrated author James McBride is a collection of stories entitled Five-Carat Soul. These…

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Get Divided Serenity #FREE on all Amazon stores! #SCIFI #FANTASY

Posted on by Little Blue Balloon

AMAZON 5 Star Review

A fantastic world in which you are never quite sure who you should really be supporting.

A great story from G L Cromarty, set in a world of have’s and have not’s. The have’s are the Aterran colonists who on a planet called Serenity have nothing to fear, living in relative safety and comfort behind a huge protective barrier powered by ancient technologies that few now understand. The have not’s are a warrior class called the Shadowlanders who live outside the protection of the barrier and in perpetual war with the primitive warmongering natives called the Jaru. So when the protective barrier fails, what then?

G L Cromarty has created a fantastic world in which you are never quite sure who you should really be supporting. With some surprising plot twists, G L Cromarty cleverly takes the reader on a journey of treachery, deceit and all consuming hatred to weave a great story that surprises and delights.

The first two books in the trilogy are well written and easily consumed and I can’t wait for the climactic third book to arrive soon. Just be aware that the main character Tanis is certainly no angel and this is reflected in his colorful language.

About Book One – Divided Serenity

Long ago, when the ancients colonized the planet named Serenity, they displaced an indigenous population and constructed a dividing force-field wall. But when an earthquake destroys the power to the protective wall, only three people have the skills to repair it—until the first two disappear en route. Now Hannah, as the last expert, must go. Her journey will take her into a native land engulfed by war between ancient enemies. Along the way, her own perceptions will be changed and she will find herself playing a part in a new rivalry between powerful forces in Shadowland determined at bringing down Aterra and that threaten to rip Shadowland apart.

[Divided Serenity on Amazon]

Is your writing frivolous?

Posted on by Little Blue Balloon

A good read 🙂

The Horny Traveller

I am basically an angry person.

To be clear when I say ‘angry’ I mean the buttoned-up version that’s woven into the tweed fabric of an Englishman of my age. I’d never actually show my anger, I couldn’t punch a face, complain in a restaurant or even wag an accusatory finger…no, I’m angry in the way that means I smile as my blood pressure rises and my chance of a heart attack increases year on year.

Anything can set me off. The national shame that is Brexit, the international injustice of Yemen, cats looking at me in a funny way….pretty much anything can be a trigger.

This week it was a twitter conversation (is that what you call a string of tweets) with the author Mary Carter last week (@mjcarterauthor).

She was saying that she resented having her writing branded as a frivolous hobby…. that she had been told to get…

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