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Friday, Jan. 31, 2025

10:57am EST

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Writing Blog Number 2

by S 🤦

Rated: 18+ · Book · Personal · #2311764

This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC

This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. If it falls this year (2024), then I may stop the whole blogging thing, but that's all a "wait and see" scenario.

An index of topics can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index"

Feel free to comment and interact.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

S 🤦

about 9 hours ago
In response to "20250131 Mythological Or Legendary Creatures As Cliché"

Ms. TerrifyingTuber - This is mainly Western dragons because those are the ones that feature most in books. That was the idea of this - looking at creatures that have become cliche in books. As for Eastern dragons, around 50-50 good-evil. And Native American beliefs had very few dragons, so calling them good or evil was difficult.

1 Like

Ms. TerrifyingTuber

about 9 hours ago
In response to "20250131 Mythological Or Legendary Creatures As Cliché"

Interesting, so most of the characteristics for dragons listed in this entry were more typical of western/European style dragons. In Eastern and Native American folklore their dragons can be benevolent. Are often associated with rain, rivers or the ocean and sometimes have antlers. Or so I've heard in the folk tales I've read.

But anyways, thanks to the textile industry and weird obsessions from the 80s and 90s, the Eastern Dragon has probably been overused.

1 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Jan 27, 2025 at 2:18pm
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

Similarly, minimum workers who drive an expensive, new car and travel overseas, stay in high end hotels, etc...

Kissing in the rain? My wife and I had attended a street dance many years ago that had been moved inside the Fire Hall because it was raining. It was hot and humid, about 39^oC with a relative humidity in the upper 90% range. They had the overhead doors open and fans, but with all the people it was stifling, so we stepped outside the doors and danced in the soft, light, and slightly cooling rain.

I agree, however, they use kissing in the rain way too often, and it's usually in a cold downpour.

1 Like

Jayne

Jan 27, 2025 at 11:28am
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

Basically agree, except #12. There's a reason women cut their hair after leaving awful relationships. There's a reason women cut off their hair as a middle finger to society. Ask around and see how many women with short hair have been told they're cute but would look cuter if they grew their hair out. Why do we need to look cute? Why can't we have a style that makes us feel fierce?

Not all women, of course. It's not that wide of a brush. But for some women, absolutely empowering and does result in a different outlook and demeanor. As to having a hairstyle that won't get in the way - yeah, that's part of it.

I freely admit I'm part of the empowered brigade. Fierce jet-black pixie-cut bed-head I-don't-care-if-you-think-women-should-have-long-locks mention-it-at-you-own-peril hair.

Not directed at you. But it's mind-boggling how many strangers still call it 'brave' or ask 'why did you do that?'

My least favorite is, "Oh, I wish I could do that. My husband/boyfriend/partner would throw a fit." I don't usually say anything, because it's not my place to say, "Get a new partner."

If you feel it's overused, that's fine. But it's definitely one of the more believable ones and has a valid reason for sticking around.

2 Like

Ms. TerrifyingTuber

Jan 27, 2025 at 10:15am
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

The way you phrased number 11 in this list really made me giggle. Although I agree, it is a really annoying trope.

1 Like

Dave Ryan

Jan 27, 2025 at 5:03am
In response to "20250127 List Of Bad Tropes"

There was a comedy sketch show in the UK in the late 90s called The Fast Show, where the sketches each week used recurring characters. They had fun with trope 2 in a series of spoof trailers - "coming soon to the BBC, a brand new drama series":

John Actor is a tough, uncompromising cop

.
John Actor is a tough, uncompromising doctor

.
John Actor is a tough, uncompromising vet

.

and so on, and it was all the same ridiculous cliched crap every time.

2 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jan 23, 2025 at 1:02am
In response to "20250122 Romance Tropes That Annoy Me"

As Quilli ☕ said, "we've seen it all before". It becomes boring.

The Thai BL industry overdid 'enemies to friends' except perhaps "Bad Buddy" where the parents were the true enemies and the two main characters struggled with their childhood secretive friendship becoming much closer. Personally, I've had friendships that had rocky starts, and that's common.

The 6 you mention may exist in reality... as do unicorns and dragons...

Quilli ☕

Jan 22, 2025 at 7:17am
In response to "20250122 Romance Tropes That Annoy Me"

Great entry! Most of these annoy the hell outta me, too. I think some tropes, regardless of genre, bug folks who do a lot of reading, like us. Often while watching a movie with my husband, I goran and tell him that it's too predictable and then tell him how things will go down - because we've seen it all before.

Adherennium - Maybe Writing?

Jan 20, 2025 at 2:52am
In response to "20250120 Utilising Peter's Evil Overlord List"

What if Sceleratus exercised his royal prerogative with some Palace maid, who on discovering her pregnancy has a fair idea what will happen to her if Sceleratus finds out, disappears. Son grows up, overthrows the father. If the mother dies in childbirth without revealing the father, you can avoid the more obvious plot lines.

Adherennium - Maybe Writing?

Jan 17, 2025 at 5:56am
In response to "20250117 My Most Hated Tropes"

Trope 2 above is a staple of all British soap operas. The thread weaves its tedious way to the inevitable line, "We've got to talk." Whereupon the misunderstanding that has spawned fire, murder, theft, adultery and more is explained and resolved. Till next time. I'd personally rate this my least favourite of the three, but they are all terrible.

4 Like

April 9, 2024 at 9:22pm

#1068331

20240410 Speculative Fiction Potential Mistakes

Things To Be Wary Of In Speculative Fiction

So… I was asked what things a writer should be careful of when writing fantasy, and how to tell if these things are in your writing.

Wow, way to ask the easy questions!

So, anyway, I looked at a few resources, and came up with this brief list that I have seen wa-a-a-a-ay too often in writing, from amateur pieces to books from the Big 5 Publishers.

1. Expository Dialogue

This is one of my big bugbears in writing – exposition dumps in all their forms. In general narration writing, it’s bad, but when it comes in dialogue, then it breaks the immersion of the story.

Look, there is information the reader really should know to get an understanding of the world, and relating that info can be difficult. I get that; I recommend the drip-feed method, bits here and there coming in as the story progresses.

But too often (especially in movies), you get the expository speech, when someone tells another something simply so the reader/viewer gets the information. How can you see it? When the dialogue starts with, “As you are aware,” or, “As you know,” or, “As you will recall,” or anything along those variations, then it’s most likely a lump of expository dialogue.

It does, however, work in comedy.

How could you get around it? A newbie who needs things explained to them is lazy, but works. Something breaks (we only notice things when they break; when they work, we don’t) and explanations are needed. But even these can be overused.

2. Vague Writing

This is very common in speculative fiction of all colours. Things are “almost” something, or there are “half-things” (I am shocking with the “half-smile”), or “sort of” creeps in. These are vague; be precise and trust the reader to fill in the details you can’t.

More words to watch out for include “seem” and “appear” (and even “looked like”), which also indicate a vagueness of description.

3. Metaphorical Confusion

Now, metaphors are all well and good. They can colour your prose, and capital-L literature uses them all the time. But in speculative fiction you need to be aware of the fact that a literal meaning of a metaphor can be a viable alternative.

Okay, I’m going to steal this from Samuel R. Delany, who coined the term “Subjunctive Tension” to describe this. He gave these examples:
His eyes fell to the floor. (Boing! boing!)
She screwed up her face. (To the ceiling? Owie!)
He ran through the door. (Able to penetrate strong oak in a single bound! Might one possibly mean the doorway?)
She strained her eyes through the viewscreen.(Yuck!)

Be careful with your turns of phrase is all I’m saying.

This leads to a discussion of Literal versus Figurative.

Look, I know some US dictionaries now claim that literal and figurative are synonyms. They are NOT. We are writers; we should be protecting language. And this is made worse in science fiction.

In some tacky teenage romance novel, saying, “Her mind literally exploded,” is a lousy metaphor, and should be avoided, but we know it is a metaphor. In a science fiction novel, it is an occurrence that results in blood, brain matter and bits of skull covering everything messily.

Literally comes from the word “literal” which means “as written.” If the head is not going to explode and leave a vacant space above the neck, then use the word figuratively. It is correct and stops confusion.

4. Capitalise Everything

Capitalising every single Noun to make them seem important is wonderful, but makes the Reader wonder what is important and what is an Irrelevancy.

This is so common in fantasy. If you name something, sure, capitalise (the Castle of Bodmin on the Moor of Doom), but otherwise… why (the Castle on the Moor)? Unless you’re writing in a Germanic language, of course…

It can be a way of hiding a lack of intensity in the writing style. And it can give importance to things not important. I have been known to do this, but is there a difference between Firehunt and firehunt? Really? Get importance through character reactions.

5. Names & Titles

Yes, it’s a world that is not modern Earth. We get that. Awesome. But why name your character Zfgdr’g’’ykl’m? Vowels are your friends! But, really, have names people can pronounce. Long names are fine, but make them sayable! And do not use names like that in the title because it will make the potential reader think the book is impenetrable.

From a book called Ghastly Beyond Belief by Gaiman & Newman, here’s McIntyre’s Laws of Titles:
”Never use a title that is (a) impossible to pronounce or (b) embarrassing to say. Doing either causes people to find it awkward to discuss your book.”

6. Are Neologisms Necessary?

I have mentioned this is the past. It is commonly referred to in science fiction writing programmes as “Calling a Rabbit a Smeerp” (^TM Damon Knight).

Now, some writers are great at inventing new words or acronyms. Heinlein was awesome. Not to toot my own horn, but a few of my publishers like my made-up words because I use logical language bases (especially Latin and Greek) for them.

But not everyone is a linguistic or etymology nerd. And there is no particular reason to rename perfectly fine words for time, distance, and food. And, yes, these are the most common things renamed. For example, your characters are drinking a hot beverage made from an infusion of the bean of the coffea aribica plant. This is “coffee.” It is not “jav” or “kaf” or (and I’m looking at you, Lionel Fanthorpe) “bevvo.” Why confuse your reader?

And, really, most people who make up words just use gibberish or turn English words into something vaguely different (and, yes, I am looking at JK Rowling’s so-called “Latin” for her spell-casting language).

And there we are. Some things I personally think you should be wary of when writing spec fic.

Oh, and for the record, spec fic is any genre that relies on unreality – horror, science fiction and fantasy. If I was being sarcastic, I’d add politics to the list, but, you know… this is about real writing.

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