Recent content by Guy

I caught it last night and loved it. For all the people who keep asking how to write strong female characters, go see this movie. This is how it should be done.

And thanks for those sources. I didn't know about those.

This would be my second. I've pretty much come to the same conclusion you have, Chesterama. I was just looking at options and kicking some ideas around and wanted to collate whatever data I could. Don't think I'll go with Book Baby.

Thanks. They're tempting because they address my Achilles' heal - promotions. I cannot overstate how much I suck at it and how little sense it makes to me, so the idea of having someone to do that has enormous appeal. Unfortunately, my other issue is extremely limited budget, so it comes down to...

Has anybody here self-published with bookbaby.com? Yay or nay? Plusses and Minuses? Pros and cons?

Agreed. Like I said, strong females are among my favorite characters, but when I write them, social or political statements are the farthest from my mind. I'm just trying to tell a good story with well-developed characters. Just because she's strong doesn't mean she doesn't mourn or cry, and it...

I, too, am utterly baffled by this as well as why so many people find writing female characters so difficult.

Dislike a character for whatever reason strikes your fancy, though the strong female is probably my favorite character type. My red button on this particular issue is when a character is presented as a strong female but when a serious challenge shows up she's reduced to a damsel in distress.

Having the villain develop along with the hero is good, but I don't think it's required. I've read plenty of good, entertaining stories in which the villain was a sadistic psychotic SOB from the get go and stayed that way. No trauma or tragic back story. Some people are just naturally a-holes.

Diversity is a fairly common topic broached here. I stumbled across this speech from Lionel Shriver at the Brisbane Writers Festival and thought it worth sharing. It's a tad long, but interesting. Lionel Shriver's full speech: 'I hope the concept of cultural appropriation is a passing fad' |...

I break the first three on a regular basis. No third person omniscient is as stupid as the no adverbs rule - like adverbs, it serves a purpose and can easily be used right. Prologues can be great for setting a hook. A prologue that runs ten pages should just be made chapter 1, but if it only...

That would've been so much better.

Yeah, that's another one of my biggies.

That's one of mine, too.

Exceptions to every rule, of course. :) In the tales I've read, Thor's hammer was so heavy even he needed special equipment to use it. Another would be when a person of slight build picks up a long sword for the first time. To them, it might very well seem heavy.