PoesDaughter

THE ETHICS     Superheroes tend to become very popular in times of tragedy, and that is why during the Nazi occupation of Europe, the Holocaust, and America’s eventual involvement in World War II, a surge of patriotism and a retributive desire to punish evildoers gave birth to heroes like Superman (1938) and Captain America (1941) (Dubose 916). Similarly, the attacks on September 11th, 2001 exacerbated social anxieties about terrorism while simultaneously promoting a resurgence of patriotism and again, a need to punish the wicked. This sentiment gave new salience to old superheroes, but senseless acts of violence such as terrorist att

Recently, I posted a poll asking my readers what writing tutorial would they like to see next. The number one subject, as picked by you, my loving readers, is how to develop a plot. So, while there are several ways to plot a story, this is how I do it (usually): Before I begin, I think it’s important to note that there are two different kinds of stories: character driven stories and plot driven stories. Character driven stories are, as implied, focused more on the characters and those characters’ internal change. If you choose to write a character driven story, your reader will spend lots of time thinking about the characters and

    One of the biggest and most frequently asked questions that I get is this: “How do I write fight scenes as good as you do?” I actually got one of those yesterday, but to be fair, he changed it up a bit and asked, “How do I keep from being repetitive in my fight scenes?” As I typed out my long-ass answer for him, it occurred to me that this was the perfect topic for my next writing tutorial. So, thank you, random dude on FanFiction.net, for the sudden spark of inspiration.    So, fight scenes: So much win!    As with nearly every other writing skill an author has in his/her repertoire, writing fights is a skill

So my newest pen pal, Paralelsky (https://www.deviantart.com/paralelsky), requested that I write a dialogue tutorial. “How can improve my dialogue?” she asked. It’s a popular question that experienced writers field a lot, and I’m no exception. Judging by most online prose – fiction and creative non-fiction – it’s something most of you struggle with. Hell, I used to, and I’m still learning new tricks every day. So, I’m gonna give this a go because that’s how I roll, yo. As with everything I tell you, there is no one set way to write compelling dialogue. There are many different ways to do it and you’ll find that

    I think with any characterization there’s a point where you empathize, no matter how much of a deviance his or her actions may be from your understanding of humanity.        ~Benedict Cumberbatch       Today, sports fans, I’d like to talk about a subject that is long overdue: the Mary Sue (or the male equivalent, Gary Stu). But before I can talk about her, I think I should define what I think she is. This is important because the webs are teeming with varying definitions, and my idea of what she is may not jive with other people’s; the definition I see most often calls to mind Mary Poppins – practically perfect in

One of the biggest troubles plaguing fiction writers is a lack of conflict in the plot structure of their story. Almost every writer has trouble with conflict, trouble that’s all out of proportion to the mental problems the subject presents. You can jot down notes, you can talk intelligently about various parts of the story structure, yet when you sit down to write, your story’s conflict is virtually non-existent. How does this happen? I suspect it’s because when you sit down to write, you have a good idea of what constitutes a conflict, but you also have an aversion to the actual step-by-step development of that conflic

The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible. ~Mark Twain ***** As always, Mark Twain hit the nail on the head. One of my biggest complaints with online fiction is the lackluster characterization I frequently see. Occasionally, I’ll stumble onto a story in which the characters move me on a profound level, and like Mr. Twain suggested, I start to care about them like I would a friend or family member. Unfortunately, 99% of the time, one chapter into most p

I’ve noticed a trend with younger writers, especially those writers of fan-fiction, and that is this perpetual need to make their characters faint as a way to wrap up a chapter. Today, I just started reading one in which the author has posted three chapters to date, and in every single one, his main character — a Commander in the Special Forces, mind you — faints at the end. The character is a Canadian and I’m an American, so it’s possible there’s a cultural disconnect that I’m not aware of, but I didn’t think our cultures were that different from each other that the manliest of their men sudden

I feel like I say this until I’m blue in the face, but I will scream this from the mountaintops until my dying day, and they will chisel it on my goddamn tombstone: use the passive voice sparingly! Let’s go back to Grammar 101 for a moment, shall we? In the passive voice, something is being done to the subject (and kudos to you for noticing that sentence was passive). For example: I was invited by my friend to go to the party. Yawn. How boring is that? Call me a control freak, call me neurotic, I don’t care. I’m the sort of person who likes to shape my own destiny, not idly stand by while something shapes it for me

How often has this happened to you? You glance at a summary that fills you with excitement to read the story, but when you click on it, you quickly discover that the whole chapter is just one, painfully long block of text? There are no breaks for dialogue, no breaks for new thoughts. Boom! It’s all there, like a towering brick wall of words. Face-palm. Even in a hard copy, such formatting would be unacceptable, but on the internet this is one of the most off-putting things a writer can do to his/her reader. Looking at a computer screen to read anything poses serious strain on your eyes, and there is a whole new science emerging as a

I try hard not to be a grammar Nazi, I really do. I recognize that everyone, myself included, is guilty of erring from time to time, so it is easy for me to ignore the occasional misplaced comma, the misspelled word, the verb-tense confusion. Spelling and grammar mistakes are what we writing teachers like to call ‘lower order concerns,’ basically meaning that they’re easy fixes to make during the revision stage of the writing process. Because they’re so easy to fix, they’re at the bottom of the proverbial totem pole, considered virtually unimportant by all real “art-teests.” And it’s true. Who c