I highly recommend this essay by Jim C. Hines, just published over at Apex, about the perils and pitfalls writers may encounter if they choose to write about rape and other sexual violence in their fiction. It’s a thoughtful piece (not surprising given his experience as a rape counselor) and he dismantles a lot of [...]
Archive for the 'character development' Category
Jim C. Hines on writing about rape in fiction
characters and emotion: a short bibliography
I’ve been struggling with a problem that I think is probably pretty common for writers: getting the emotions of a point of view (POV) character across in a way that is vivid and engaging yet not hokey or too “on the nose.” Of course my first impulse was to look around to see what other writers have to say, and I found some useful resources, which I’m happy to share with you.
review: black blade blues
I just read Black Blade Blues, the debut urban fantasy novel by J. A. Pitts and first of a series of three from Tor, and it was a LOT of fun. The the book features left-handed lesbian blacksmith and martial arts expert Sarah Beauhall, who inadvertently reforges a magic sword, befriends a six-foot tall dwarf [...]
writer’s bookshelf: the tough guide to fantasyland
Up this week is The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. This book has been around since 1996 (first publised in the UK, now available from Penguin the US through their Firebird imprint) and has been justly lauded and reviewed LOTS of places, so I’ll be brief. The Guide is arranged as an [...]
Just for fun (or if you’re really stuck): the Fantasy Name Generator
If you are really, truly, very bad at naming characters, and you write fantasy fiction, here at last is help: the Fantasy Name Generator. I wish I could think of the author who did this, but I was reading about someone (whose writing I respect and whose invented names generally went well with her characters [...]