In writing, you’ve always got to strike a balance between things that the readers find familiar and things that might be original or new to them. Every genre has its own standard set of tropes, plot twists, character archetypes, and other such story elements, and even if the readers can’t explain them all to you,… Continue reading Familiar vs. original vs. WTF?
Tag: Thriller
Yesterday’s Gone: Episode One by Sean Platt & David Wright
Imagine you wake up tomorrow, and find out that everyone around you has vanished. Well…not everyone. But the ones who are still around claim to see strange things that you can’t see. And then, you get an eerie feeling of a presence…something dangerous, something coming at you right now. And then, things get really weird… Yesterday’s… Continue reading Yesterday’s Gone: Episode One by Sean Platt & David Wright
Trope Tuesday: Xanatos Speed Chess
Well, I can’t say any of this mess was part of my original plan, but it’s all working out so beautifully that I can’t complain. Tarvek, Girl Genius. The Xanatos Gambit is when a character plans out a scheme such that all possible outcomes (including abject failure) ultimately benefit that character. Named after David Xanatos… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Xanatos Speed Chess
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
On a stormy night off the coast of Marseilles, a local fishing trawler recovers a man with a gunshot wound to the head. The local doctor patches him up, but when he recovers, he has no knowledge of his past life. Even his name is a mystery. Fortunately, he has a clue to help him… Continue reading The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
Holy crap! 5,373 words in one day
That’s right–5,373. And I was only going for 4k! How did this hapen? Well, I was revising a couple of powerful, gripping scenes. The way I’d had them before, they worked okay, but when I followed the suggestions from the writing group, it made them ten times better. By midafternoon, I was hooked in my… Continue reading Holy crap! 5,373 words in one day
I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
John is a weird kid. When he isn’t helping out his mother at their small-town mortuary, taking intense, morbid pleasure from opening up the dead bodies and exploring their insides, he’s researching serial killers, devouring every book he can find on the subject. If he had his way, he would open bodies all day–dead and… Continue reading I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells