Extremely bLAwg
"Blog" is Just the Worst Portmanteau Ever, Honestly.
The ELA Blog
On Reading - How to Write, What to Write, and Why to Write
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If you want to write, you are going to have to read. I know this goes against the "anyone can write/anything is better than a blank page" ethos of ELA, but hear me out. Writing is not the only hobby out there, and it might be that you are actually more suited to something else instead. And that's pe...
On Second Draft Things - Things You Don't Have To Worry About Now
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While you are writing your first rough draft, you only need to focus on getting some words written down roughly in order.
You don't need to worry about:
- Font, line spacing, or probably even adding italics and bold. Focus on the writing. Keep going.
- Margins, columns, or page layout. Focus on th...
On The Six Questions - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?
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Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How? Whether you are still trying to find your story, or if you are now exploring your story, or if you feel that you now know your story through and through, you should be able to answer these six fundamental questions about your story.
- Who? The Characters
Who i...
On Setting - When, Where, and Verisimilitude
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Setting can be an interesting thing.
For many stories, the when and where can be as simple as "here and now" or "once upon a time in a fairy tale" and that covers it. You can go into a little more detail about the exact details of the setting (is there an enchanted forest or a little farm town of...
On Inspiration - Stealing and Borrowing, But in Space!
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Sometimes, it can be hard to get started. You have a blank piece of paper (or blank screen) in front of you, and you just don't know what you are going to say to fill it.
That's okay! The secret is that you are not starting from nothing and trying to create a whole new thing that has never been se...
On Tropes - Clichés, Inversions, and Hamburgers
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We talked about the "Storytelling Store" yesterday, where all the storytellers walk the genre aisles and pick ideas to put in their shopping carts. Within the language of creative writing, the ideas on the shelves are called "tropes". They are any storytelling element or convention that can be ident...
On Genres - Fantasy, Sci-fi, and Shopping at the Storytelling Store
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It's okay if your story idea is a lot like someone else's idea. In fact, it's kind of supposed to be like that!
Fiction is organized into genres so that readers can find what they want to read next easily. If you are the mood for swords and magic and goblins, you start looking at fantasy stories....
On Ideas - No Ideas, Losing Ideas, and Used Ideas
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People often overthink ideas.
Sometimes, they lament that they will never have an idea good enough to write a whole book about. But that's often not how stories come together. Sometimes, they will slowly grow by combining multiple different smaller ideas one at a time over successive drafts, until...