This isn’t a post about homonyms, it’s about the rite of passage we all must take in order to become better writers, to write right. Contrary to popular opinion, people aren’t born great writers. Anyone can become a talented and successful writer so long as they possess the following traits:
The science of curiosity
I posit that curiosity is the feeling that compels us to solve problems with the ultimate goal of controlling our environment. The only way for us to have control over our environment is to learn about it. A baby explores the world by touching and tasting everything, for that is the tried and tested method of knowing if something is good or bad for you.
The science of writers’ retreats
Last Friday I left on a writers’ retreat with a couple members of my critique group to the beautiful San Juan Islands in Washington state. If you are a writer and haven’t been on a writers retreat or joined a writers group, I highly recommend it. I've been to a couple of writing retreats over the past few years, and there is a science to getting the most out of them.
The misinformation perpetuation
In the entertainment industry, this isn’t called misinformation, it’s called ‘artistic license,’ and it gives the industry the ability to alter, fabricate, and withhold any and all information for the sake of entertainment. Everyone who has watched a movie will have seen a 5 gram bullet knock a 90,000 gram individual back a few yards.
The science of making your readers hate you
Likely as not, readers won’t blame your characters for the jarring roller-coaster ride of emotion they’ve been on, they’ll blame you, the author. So why risk it? Because who wants to be on a roller-coaster with no twists and turns? There are countless reasons why readers might choose to hate an author. Here I will discuss the things that writers do on purpose, the plot devices that can make or break a novel.
The science of magic
I enjoy fantasy for the same reason as everyone else, to be taken out of our world and go on a narrated tour of the fantastical. But magic should still have logical consistency, otherwise it’s impossible for me to get fully immersed in the story.
Writing Update-August
I am an author, with no shortage of writing projects, and I owe it to my current and future readers, to keep them informed. So I’ve decided to dedicate a monthly post to the status of my current novels. For this first post, I will give a bit of my writing history.
Wired to write
They say that everyone has a story inside them, waiting to be told. As writers, the stories don’t wait patiently; they struggle and fight, driving us to distraction and sleepless nights until we put that pen to paper. But why must we tell stories at all? Where does this urge come from?
Inspiration from an unseen world
In our day to day lives, there are so many things that evade our senses and awareness. Many processes are occurring so slowly or are too small to see, we can never fully appreciate them. Fortunately, some nerds carry a macro lens on them at all times and do time-lapse videos whenever they sit down for extended periods of time.
Specialization is for insects
We might think specialization is the only way to penetrate deeply into the unknown, but when you approach the problem from all angles, clear away the overburden a little at a time, you will encounter fewer obstacles, and have much more room to move around and pick up whatever gold nuggets you see.
