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Drivers Behind Fan Works

7/21/2020

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In a manner of speaking, many of the paintings and literary masterpieces we consider classics are fan works.

Shakespeare is well known for taking the work of other writers and improving upon it when crafting his plays. When you get right down to it, what are Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno but fan fiction written about the Bible? Many of the earlier novelists took inspiration from each other’s work, often borrowing heavily from one another.

Aside from portraits, what are the subjects of most of the famous Renaissance paintings we learned about in school? They either featured Bible scenes or scenes from Greek or Roman mythology.

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Learning the Craft Takes Time

6/16/2020

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People look at writing as a solitary pastime, and in many ways it is. However, the best parts of the writing community are anything but solitary, especially so nowadays with the internet connecting us with ease. 

When I was coming up and just starting to seriously look into publishing back in the mid to late 90s, being able to find an author’s address or email address was huge. Even back when the only internet access I had was the once a month trip to my high school’s computer lab, I managed to find Anne McCaffrey’s address on her website and write to her. Aside from our school librarian, she was the first person to ever encourage the writing dream. I found the boards on her website, and some other writer’s boards besides, in the following year or two, and through them, I found mentors.

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Back to Basics: Personification

4/14/2020

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We will take a look at personification today as we continue our study of figurative language. What exactly is personification?

Personification is defined as the application of human characteristics upon something nonhuman. This can be showing an inanimate object, concept, event, or animal through the use of human qualities or characteristics.
Screenshot from Disney's Beauty and the Beast showing Mrs. Pots, Chip, Cogsworth, Lumiere, and an unnamed maid as examples of personification in media.
Disney's Beauty and the Beast is a prime example of personification.
Because of its prevalence in cartoons, fables, and other children’s media, personification and its subsets are often some of the easiest forms of figurative language for many to understand. After all, how many of us grew up watching Disney films where a clock and a candlestick held conversations and argued with a teapot or the main characters were talking animals?

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Thoughts on Diversity

2/4/2020

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A few weeks ago, I talked a little about how I came to realize the way I experience the world isn't how the majority of people experience it. As a result of that particular journey and the things I learned along the way, I came to realize I had written at least two of my characters as autistic without actually setting out to do so. Having come to this realization, I had a choice.
Picture
Rewrite them to be neurotypical, which is another way of saying "normal," which in and of itself is just a way of describing how the majority are, or I could keep them as they were.

The thing is, I cannot really imagine either Pyrrha or Asa being any other way than how I have been writing them. Plus, for me at least, nothing has really changed about how I view either character. Both are still strong, intelligent, kick butt women. They have places where they struggle and places where they shine like anyone else. There's just a concrete, neurological explanation behind some of theirs. 


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Improve Your Manuscript by Doing this One "Easy" Thing

2/9/2018

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While trying my hand at teaching high school back in the fall, I spent so long away from my current rough draft, I forgot half of what I'd written. So I've been going back to read through it. In doing so, several issues with the rough have been jumping out at me, but they all stem from one factor common in rough drafts, lacking conflict.
authors be nice to your characters meme
Readers have their favorites, and they don't enjoy seeing them put through the wringer, but at the same time, what are the chances they would be so fond of those characters if they never struggled? No matter if your story is plot driven or character driven, without conflict, there is no story.

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Canon, Fanon, and Everything In Between: A Brief Overview

2/6/2018

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Have you heard all the hoopla surrounding Star Wars being bought out by Disney and all the new movies? Some are all for it, but others, including Mark Hamill have some... issues... with the new storylines. Why though?

Well, to get at the answer, you have to understand a few things about the Star Wars fandom and the franchise itself over the past thirty years or so.
Fan Built R2D2 remote controlled robot from 2 Story Props.
2 Story Props' R2D2 unit, Goddard, was rolling around Rocket City NerdCon 2015.

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The Mental Health/Creativity Connection

2/2/2018

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I think we've all seen or heard the "tortured" artist trope at one time or another. It's no secret a high percentage of notable artists, be they writers, poets, musicians, painters, sculptors, or any other kind of artist, have or do suffer from a range of mental health problems. Because of this correlation between mental health problems and creative success, popular notions of creativity have come to romanticize them as part and parcel to creative genius.

I hate this notion so much! Even if there's some truth to it, it's a dangerous and irresponsible idea in so many ways.

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Character Versus Plot Driven Stories

7/19/2016

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PictureScreencap from Battlestar Galactica 2003
Is your story driven by its plot or by the characters? Does this make a difference? To some, perhaps not. However, some readers prefer one over the other.

What's the difference? It comes down to character development more than anything. Take Battlestar Galactica for example since it's been told both ways. Classic Battlestar was plot driven. Each episode had its own self-contained plot with the search for Earth tying it together, and there wasn't a lot of character development. The characters were there more or less to serve the plot. The 2003 remake was more character driven. Oh, it had plots and subplots to spare, but the plots served more as vehicles for driving character development than the other way around. You have those who love the classic and hate the reboot, and there are plenty of folks who feel the opposite. Those who enjoy both seem fewer in number.


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Throwback: Finding My Audience

6/7/2016

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Originally published March 28, 2010

I must have asked myself what the hold up is on Right of Succession a thousand times over the years. I mean, I started on the thing about this time of year back when I was thirteen, and I'll be 29 in a few months.

Filled with the self-assurance of the immensely amateur, at first I was sure it was simply the time eaten up with class and homework holding back the rate I could write. Then my family bought our first computer my freshman year of college, and I began researching publishing online and participating in writers' groups. After a couple of years and many blows to the ego, I realized I had a lot to learn about writing in general, let alone creating readable fiction.

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Writing Technicals: Voice

5/31/2016

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One of the most important parts of getting started writing is choosing which voice to write in for the story you're telling. It's how your reader will experience the story from start to finish, so the impact it has on the piece as a whole is extensive. Make sure you pick the one that will work best for the story you are trying to tell.

So what is voice? To look at it broadly, voice determines which pronouns you'll use to tell the story. Would it play out better using I, you, or he/she? Beyond that, there is active and passive voice. Point-of-view plays a role as well. However, since I've already covered active verses passive voice and point-of-view, I want to take a closer look at first person, second person, and the variety of third person voices available.

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    Author A. B. England, science fiction author, fantasy author, novelist
    A. B. England is a small business owner, mom of two, novelist, all around geek, and avid crafter. She loves mythology, fantasy, and all flavors of science fiction.

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