Surprise! This isn’t an ordinary Being a Better Writer bit. Many of you likely guessed that based on the day (Friday versus the traditional Monday), and you’re right.
That’s because this isn’t your usual BaBW post, it’s a Topic Call!
What’s a Topic Call, you may ask? It’s an opening of the floodgates for readers to suggest their own writing topics they’d like to learn more about for future Being a Better Writer installments.
In other words: What do you want to see Being a Better Writer talk about? What writing topics do you wish to see addressed or brought up? What sort of questions do you have about, well, writing?
Topic List #19 is about exhausted, which means that it is time to start assembling a new list. I’ve got ideas for forthcoming articles, but what about you?
This is your chance. If there’s an aspect of writing you’d like to see Being a Better Writer discuss (or, if it’s been more than five years since the last post on a topic, revisited), what is it? Post your suggestions in the comments, and get your question answered in a future BaBW post!
Unusual Things 
Hi Max. How about advice on how to write organically believable fight and action scenes in stories.
I’ve seen it done well, from every level of action starting from just tailing someone down a street to a full on super saiyan overpowered battle scene. And more often done just as poorly. And I’ve seen them placed into a story seamlessly, as well as dropped in so out of place they look like many stories obligatory bedroom scene. Having read your stories, I know you’ve figured this out, so any good advice for the hopeful writers? Thanks!
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[…] get some great suggestions from readers, so if there’s a topic you’d like to hear about, let it be known on the topic call post! Make a […]
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[…] that if there’s a writing topic you want to know about, you should be letting it be known in the post calling for topics. I’m going to be putting Topic List #20 together next week, so comment […]
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I had a thought, and thought your thoughts on my thought would make for an interesting topic. The thought: The value of unanswered questions.
One of my favorite genres is the Weird Tale. It is a story in which the questions are more important than the answers. They come in a wide range of genres, but dark and frightening tales are among the most common. After all, humans want to know the answers. To hear a story without answers is unnerving, and some authors play to that. Many of Lovecraft’s works qualify. A much more modern example may be the Welcome to Nightvale podcast, which it might be argued is a long-running celebration of the unknown.
Which leads to my point: creating a question without an answer, resisting the urge to create that answer, and using that unanswered question as a tool in a story. How do we determine the value in that? When is it important, and when should it be avoided? Do the characters really need to try and answer the question, or is the story benefited by it being an accepted extra layer of mystery never to be sought after?
All of humanity exists in a continuous pursuit of answers. Perhaps it is good that we don’t always attain them.
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I LOVE THIS! It’s on the list!
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