Month: November 2017

Being a Better Writer: Languages

Max Being a Better Writer , , ,

Welcome back to another edition of Being a Better Writer, readers! I hope those of you who celebrated the US holiday of Thanksgiving had a good one, while those of you who didn’t at least were obliging of our season of gluttony. Yeah, it’s all about giving thanks … but in my practical experience that’s usually thanks for how many different kinds of pie one can stuff into them after devouring several pounds of turkey.

We’re coming up on the Christmas holiday season (during which I’ll be taking a short break to recharge), but in the meantime, I figured I’d continue in the same theme we’ve been following for the last two weeks (during which we’ve talked about accents and then dialects) and talk about Languages.

No, I’m not talking about foul language. Just languages. As in, languages other than the one that you’re writing in that your audience speaks and reads. From something as simple as Spanish or Italian to writing in something a bit more fantastical, like Tolkien’s Elvish or Star Trek‘s Klingon.

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Dialects

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , ,

When you go to the grocery store, what do you call the wheeled apparatus that you collect your groceries in? Is it a shopping cart? Or is it a carriage? Or a trolley?

I’m willing to bet that a good number, if not most of you said “shopping cart.” But if you were from the American northeast—say, Connecticut or Rhode Island—there’s a high chance that you said “Carriage” instead. Or that you might say “bubbler” instead of “water fountain.” Or “soda pop” instead of “soda.” Or crud, maybe you’re even one of those individuals who calls all sodas “coke.” You know, as in “Get me a coke,” followed by “What do you want?” and “Oh, a Pepsi.”

All of these differences (and many, many more, from snow machine to snowmobile) are examples of what are know as “regional dialects.” Which makes today’s post a bit of a companion piece to last week’s on accents. And, I must admit, this topic wasn’t on the list, but after a comment about the concept by reader ocalhoun (no, I don’t know how you pronounce that either, but I’ve always read it as “o-cull-hoon”) brought up the subject, I realized that it was worth posting about, rather than just giving it an offhand mention as I had previously done.

So, dialects! What are they, how do they come about, and—this part is a bit key—what separates a dialect from an accent? Because yes, they are two different things. You can have two individuals with the same accent but a different dialect.

Continue reading →

Advent Faces a New Foe: The Dusk Guard and the Dusk Rogues Join X-Com!

Max Gaming , , , , ,

Aliens of all kinds? Well, it could be worse.

 

Yes! At long last they’re here! And totally not this late because I totally spaced it while working on Jungle until a fan reminded me. Nope, not that at all.

But at last they’re here. Fresh from the pages of The Dusk Guard (one of the fanfics that got me my start on the writing scene—it’s a long story) come … Well, the Dusk Guard. That’s pretty self explanatory. But they’re here! Steel, Hunter, Sky (everyone’s favorite waifu), Dawn, Sabra, Nova … and even a little bonus I’ll leave to those who grab to pack to discover.

Continue reading →

Classic Being a Better Writer: Character Odds and Ends

Max Classic Posts , , , , , ,

New here? Confused by what a Classic Being a Better Writer post is? No worries!

Classic posts dig into a four-year archive of weekly BaBW articles to dig up a couple that are relevant to one another, forming a quick and easy to browse sampling of some of the site’s various writing articles.

Today? A few odds and ends, from character versus plot (and what that means) to language!

No beating around the bush here. Let’s get going!

Character Versus Plot—
We’ll start with the underlying concept behind these two options: All stories are driven by something. Now, when I say that a story is driven by something, I don’t mean the antagonist, or the inciting incident, or even the growth of the character. What I’m referring to by driven is the events or actions by which the story is pulled forward.

Bilbo leaving Frodo the ring, for example, is something that pulls the story forward. Harry receiving a letter from Hogwarts. Vin being noticed by Kelsier. A story is, in it’s purest, simplified form, a collection of events. But something inside the story must happen in order for these events to occur. Cause and effect.

What I’m discussing today is the method by which the story moves forward. Is it character-derived, or plot-derived?

Common Problems with Character Emotion—
More specifically, we’re going to look how writers handle giving their characters emotions, and where a lot of the common pitfalls occur.

So right from the start, I’m going to assume we’re all on the same page here. We wantour characters to have emotion. We want them to be well-rounded, well developed … real, in other words. We want characters who are complex, with multiple facets to their character who remind us of real people. We want a character who seems real. We do not want a flat character.

But the challenge is that writing such a character is quite difficult, and many authors fall into pitfalls along the way. And I’m not speaking of just novice writers out there either, plenty of long-term authors can still be guilty of making any number of these mistakes, falling into traps by either cutting corners or not realizing what they’ve done. And for it, their work suffers. Characters become “props” in a story, interchangeable parts that simply drop into scenes or events to fulfill a purpose.

Language—
If you’ve never considered how the language of different characters and scenes can affect your writing, well, it’s definitely worth thinking about.

But today, I’m going to talk about a different kind of language.

Foul language.

Some of you might not recognize the term (as it isn’t as widely used anymore), so I’ll get a little more specific. Swearing. Cursing. Derogatory words. Words and phrases that are generally considered impolite. The “F” word. D**n. Stuff like that. And yes, I’m censoring them for this blog. Family friendly.

You got that? All right. Are you ready for one of the biggest shocks of your life?

You shouldn’t be using them. At least, not nearly as often as you do.

Support Via Patreon!

Being a Better Writer: Accents

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , ,

Hopefully this will be a short one. After the longer-than-average posts the last few weeks, I’d like to get a quicker, shorter Being a Better Writer post in so I can jump back to closing up Jungle once and for all!

Granted, every time I say that I end up writing a post that’s multiple times longer than I expected, so hopefully I’ve not jinxed myself here. But let’s get this underway. Let’s talk about accents.

Thankfully, I feel that I have a bit I can contribute on this topic, as it was a hotly contested one during one of my college English courses, with the classroom dividing into three sides (for, against, and non-determinate) on the issue. Granted, the non-determinate faction really doesn’t come into play here, except to let you know that there are those who don’t mind either way, but … Well, let’s back up. Why were there two groups?

Well, because there are two ways of handling accents in fiction. Well, writing in general, rather (you could do this in a non-fiction work as well). You can create an accent that is phonetic—as in, written out the way it sounds—or you can not do that and simply tell the reader what the accent is. Okay, and there’s technically a third option, which is to blend to two, but most consider that going the phonetic route either way.

Both of these, naturally, have strengths and drawbacks, so really, it’s up to you—and on a smaller scale, up to your audience—to decide which of these you prefer.

Continue reading →

Why You Should Read … Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium

Max Books! , , ,

So I’m trying something new today here at Unusual Things. I’ve had the idea for a post series like this in the back of my head for a while now, and while it’s not going to be a regular series like Being a Better Writer is, I do hope it might be an occasional counterpart.

So first up, what is this post? Well, Why You Should Read … is a recommendation post. I’ve said before on this site (more than once actually) that writers need to read. It’s an important part of being a writer. Reading other’s works is an vital way to broaden your writing horizons in all aspects. And, in that vein, I do follow my own advice and do my best to read a decent number of books per year (usually around fifty, but be noted that I’m a fairly swift reader, so don’t feel like that’s some sort of milestone you need to reach). Various sources and genres, too.

In any case, Why You Should Read … is kind of the result. Because every so often I’ll pick up a book and read it that makes me think “Whoa. That was really good!” for one reason or another. This in turn makes me want to suggest it to you readers for one reason or another (and don’t worry, I’ll be dividing my recommendation by spoiler potential, so you’ll be able to stay clear of those if you so desire, though the recommendation may not be as grounded).

Now, minor disclaimers here before we get started. First, I’m not receiving any sort of compensation for this recommendation. This is a title I picked up and read of my own free will that I am in turn recommending for reader consideration for one reason or another (the rest of the post will get into that). I’ve not received any compensation whatsoever for recommending this book.

Second, as always, I’d recommend anyone looking for a few more good books to head over to my books page and start browsing! You can read samples, grab bonuses … I recommend each and every one of those!

Final disclaimer: What did you think of this post? Comment below, past the “End Spoilers” bar and let me know if you like the idea!

Right, with the pre-amble taken care of, let’s get this Why You Should Read … underway! Buckle up readers, because it’s time to meet Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium!

Continue reading →

Being a Better Writer: Why Writers Should Play Games

Max Being a Better Writer , , , , , , ,

I’m back!

Yup, got my replacement ethernet port installed and I’m back in business. I actually did get a pretty good amount of writing done too. Two weeks without internet notwithstanding, as Jungle isn’t in any position at the moment where it requires internet. Okay, well, it required some worldbuilding documents on Google Docs, but those I could skim on my phone.

Jungle, by the way, is still in the finale. Everything’s blowing up, similar to Colony, and that’s not really that much of a surprise as this is a sequel. Hopefully I can be done by the end of this week. There are only a few chapters more to go, and everything’s coming together pretty well. Editing is going to be a chore, but … that’s the writing life!

Okay, enough yammering about current events in my writing queue. Now to yammer about something else. Just a quick reminder, if you’re a Patreon Supporter, check the reward posts! I checked the stats on Patreon yesterday and some of those posts have only ever seen two views despite the number of supporters! I’m not sure if I’m not making them visible enough, or what, but I was genuinely surprised (especially as a few supporters have hinted that they didn’t feel there were enough Patreon rewards for being supporters … and yet a large majority of those rewards have barely been looked at). There’s retrospectives, worldbuilding extras and notes for various books, and even previews and short stories I’ve not posted anywhere else!

If you’re a supporter, don’t miss out! Those posts are for you! You can check out the entire backlog here, or just head on over to my Patreon page if you’re not a supporter yet, but would like to become one.

Okay, that’s all out of the way. Now how about I get down to today’s topic. Which is a bit of an odd one, sure, but one that’s worth bringing up. Today, we’re going to talk about why writers should play games. And no, I’m not talking about the kind of games where you find a maybe significant other and lead them on. Not those games.

Continue reading →