Nathan Bransford - The Forums

In mythological terms, the Threshold Guardians are howling at you, February. Remember, when and if you get past them, they can transform into Helpful Companions. Knee-jerk reactions and doubts are par for the course. Length? It should be as long as it needs to be. And do you really want to work with...

Impaled on the soaring skyline, Polymath? Indeed! I once wrote a scene where a skydiver gets impaled on the point of the Chrysler Building's famous spire. But further research revealed the spire, which looks needle sharp from street level, is several inches across at the top and quite blunt. My YA s...

Your having fun did show in the writing, Username, and that’s a good thing. Sometimes well-intended advisors give the impression writing should be a kind of penitential exercise, using more blood than ink, as it were. But if you sent 47 agents ‘(not) much of a query letter’ you made it all too easy ...

Vampire fiction has been going strong in Ireland since the nineteenth century, e. g. Sheridan Le Fanu and Bram Stoker, and Darren Shan more recently.

In a comment on Nathan’s blog a few weeks ago I warned about the danger of JACOB WONDERBAR inspiring intergalactic juvenile delinquents. Not to mention breaking the universe without making good the damages. Which I just mentioned...But a corndog swap isn’t really stealing, is it? Anyway, having just...

You're not the first writer to try to trick agents that way, Username! And two can play that game. Turning pages upside-down, sticking them together, dog-earing them, it’s all been tried before. Agents have been known to read the pages, then turn them upside-down again, or re-dog-ear them, or whatev...

So THAT’S why I catch on fire every time I fly my kite in a thunderstorm! I should sue Benjamin Franklin. I’ve just finished rereading Robert Louis Stevenson’s TREASURE ISLAND, which achieved much of the balanced approach Polymath advocates, and did so back in 1882, without lecturing, while telling ...

You hit the nail right on the head, Polymath! And I don't mean fingernail. Your metaphor 'Vivisecting narratives' startled me a little until I told myself that's a lot better than a post-mortem! Writer's versus reader's creative vision is a question that's long fascinated me too. Long ago I decided ...

My YA steampunk series could also be classed as boy books. But I've got no farts or pratfalls or immature references to boobies! Back to the drawring...drawing...keyboard.

Interesting, Polymath. So THAT'S why IRS agents don't have reflections!

So, who HASN'T entered Nathan's first page contest? Well, there's Quill, me, and the guys up on the International Space Station...Oh, wait! I think one of the cosmonauts is just posting...

I have no problems with dream sequences, even at the start of a novel. But you might subdivide the long first paragraph. I second Gina Frost regarding removing the two 'ands'. Removing the preceding 'as' in each sentence would also correct the problem. 'God' is usually capitalized. '...a laughing cr...

I like your query, Zakariya. Particularly the provocative tone, use of the second person, repetition of the title, and rhetorical questions. But people differ. For example, omit the rhetorical questions if you query Nathan Bransford! Sorry to suggest more commas, put I would put one after 'For one' ...

Welcome, Superduperkool! I didn't know fast food restaurants employed historians! Even one run by children. Cowboy Cal's Pizza Corral? A prepubescent manager? Daisy Dukes? Is there a Dodge with a Confederate flag on its roof? Do unemployed postgrads (sorry Lachrymal!) really want to read about other...

There are obviously laws against abuse, underage sex, and pimping, and prostitution is illegal in most jurisdictions. Perhaps you means laws against DEPICTING such things in a novel? I would imagine not, unless someone wants to classify the scenes as child pornography.