Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Title: Elena Starfire - Space Pilot Genre: MG science fiction Word Count: 253 The apartment blocks were silent. A lone searchlight swept over the causeway between the towers, idly lingering on doorways and bins, lighting the blackness of the evening, then moving on. Curfew had passed more than half ...

A friend of mine was creating names for a rock creature, and was looking up geological terms to help him. I liked the idea and wanted a surname for someone rock-solid and down-to-earth, and I tried the same thing and found the name Moraine which is a sort of rock feature. You could try the same thin...

I like the query - it has lots of elements that I would like to know more about. I wondered whether you have a scientific background? It might be worth mentioning that, if your novel has a scientific twist. I also wouldn't mention the sequel. You can tell them about that later once they are already ...

Another vote for Strunk and White. Because of this book, I am one of the only people I know who knows how to use a semi-colon correctly! Similarly apostrophes for plurals, etc. It's an excellent book.

Hm, very interesting thoughts!

Thanks for the advice!

I'm starting to wonder whether it's a good idea to get your idea to the "query" stage before writing the full manuscript. Not in terms of submitting to agents, but for feedback. It seems so wasteful to give six months to a year of your life to a project, only to have it rejected everywhere...

Thanks for that, I needed to hear something like that! Feel much better now! I read my story to my class of 10 year olds today and they really liked it! Even one of my most reluctant readers came up to me and asked where he could get his own copy. They are, of course, extremely biased but will try t...

You missed a couple of verbs that need to be changed to present tense, so I have highlighted them for you: When wealthy businessman Don Williams is forced into a nursing home, he loses the will to live. Don hates the nursing home and desperately wants to return home. If not for the companionship off...

I have only had 3 rejections so far. The first one wasn't so bad, it just said I didn't suit her style, but the second one said that my story didn't grab his imagination. Now I am having a crisis of confidence wondering if I have written anything worthwhile! How do you learn to take the criticism an...

I'll take you up on that experiment! Will report back on my findings later.

Yes, I run a creative writing club at my school and the children were allowed to set their own target word count. We are still working on editing them but I am hoping that all of them will be able to get their own proof copy of their book and that it will set them off on a lifelong love of writing!

I've edited this for grammar for you, there was a misplaced semi-colon and you missed a couple of embedded clauses :o) Dear Agent, Tirian is an enchanted toad with magical powers living in the forest kingdom of Garn, home of the Enchanted Ones. But when a vengeful enchantress turns Tirian into a hum...

I teach ten year olds and I have to teach them to use as many different dialogue tags and adverbs as possible! At a meeting I did try to explain that this is not such a good idea but no one would listen to me!

I was hooked by the query and it would definitely make me want to see some pages and synopsis! I must respectfully disagree with Mary about one point; I was just looking at "Query Shark" and she specifically said to start with the story, as you have done, and leave the part about why you q...

I think they are okay to use, and I also like adverbs occasionally! To me, the only place it leaps out is when there are several short lines of dialogue, each with a different dialogue tag. As long as they are peppered through the text judiciously, I don't find it a problem. What I find more difficu...