Australian Writers' Forum

OK... he's obviously talking about subverting the audience's expectations. That's one way to write funny. ;) So, here's one thing I did: the setting is Britain in Roman times. The Romans have landed and advancing on a small fishing village, where there's a kid called Will Shake-the-Spear. (So called...

Yep. Let's hide behind the chainsaws! :twisted: And yes, women always trip in horror movies. :lol: Good ideas there. The 100% Perfect character is a snooze-bucket. The Too Dumb To Live character contributes to a DNF. Ways to solve this? Give your Perfect character a flaw - he's a drunk, or a womanis...

Yeah ... making a reader care about your character is difficult. :| So difficult, indeed, that I was thinking of investing in a "In case of stress, Bang Head Here" sign. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51UMxeMsAeL.jpg But then, to relieve stress, I watched Brian Blessed Co...

You'll get no argument from me, I think.

The article is clear, concise, and chock-full of good advice.

And so I close by saying: nope, this article definitely doesn't leave me "commatose"!

First rule: do not create Star Trek or Star Wars aliens (which are just humans with silly masks). :) I'm not writing a SF novel, but the one I'm writing now - a blend of history, mythology, and fantasy - is similar. How do you create interesting monsters, and not just humans with funny masks? Also, ...

And that's how writers find out how to get 120% out of their day - or is it more? :lol: [there isn't a smiley with manic laughter, so this will do] I think you mean this one ... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: Mwa ha ha! *adjusts fez, twists moustaches, a la this guy...* https://static.tvtropes.org/p...

Don't forget 5% staring into space, 4% petting the cat, and 1% writer's slump and wishing that I could bang my head on the desk.

The professor would have called the eagles intervention eucatastrophe, but yes Return of the King does have too many endings. I agree that RotK has too many endings, but then Tolkien had waaaaay too many characters and I guess that he wanted to close all their stories. Otherwise sharp-eyed readers ...

Hmm... yes, I agree that the deus ex machina has been done to death. Bleh.

J. R. R. Tolkien, both in "The Hobbit" and in "Return of the King", has a eagle ex machina ending - but we know that the eagles are not on Sauron's side, so I think we can forgive Prof. Tolkien.

PaulE wrote:One they missed, making an "exotic" alien race a copy of a specific Earth culture (I think Japan is probably the most over-used). That's just lazy world-building.

The original Star Trek is guilty of that, too.