Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Three writing principles come to mind: focus, specificity, and personal experience. What happens at one mission to one focal character from the character's perspective due to larger forces. This is how James Michener managed large sweeps of time and space. Fyodor Dostoevsky too. No one wants to read...

Narrative point of view is the viewpoint from which a narrative originates. This is a top tier viewpoint, be it a narrator's or a character-narrator's. A challenge for first-person narration is exactly the issue of whether the character is present for events so that they may be reported in first per...

I've encountered several texts that analyze what makes a classic a classic. Bestseller status is highly variable, depending on marketplace era, demand and supply, and even cultural preference factors. One of the texts approaches what's classic from a writing perspective; that is, John Gardner's The ...

A couple of misplaced commas in the blog post and missing the fourth more artful punctuation mark: the colon. Ellipsis points--not per se an ellipsis, but points marking the rhetorical figure of ellipsis--are easily and frequently overused, misused, and abused. My ranking for artful punctuation afte...

Hi, lfizz, welcome to Bransforums. If you have questions or subjects for discussion on writing topics, you can post them in the All Things Writing forum, and I as well as others will respond with our best guidances. I'm not inclined toward giving validation, too much like insincere approval for my s...

Access to a digital publication is among the most appreciable piracy and ease concerns. I can't in good conscience recommend aggressively restricting access. The more a digital publication's access is restricted, the more inconvenient accessing it becomes, the more likely interest will be limited. R...

Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect's editing features allow modifying a source document into another document. Simply save the original with a different name. Like Source.wpd saved as Edited.wpd. Edit the Edited.wpd to your heart's content. Then compare the documents, labeled "Compare" i...

I rarely have issues with titling my works. In the first place I realize that if a title doesn't fit a work and publishers want it they will retitle it. In the second place I compose titles that fit their works. One method I use is evaluating what any given narrative is about. Is the story mainly ab...

The "algorithm" to me seeks out what I label static voice. Static voice is verb and adverb related; however, verbs' strength is their temporal significance. This verb significance topic is covered in The Poetics of Aristotle . Static voice basically uses verbs that describe static actions ...

Character dimensionality is about realistic imitation of human complexity. A flat character is one who is portrayed as simplistically stereotypical, yet a degree more complex archetypes are artful and essential stereotypes. An artlessly flat character is one lacking in rounding features. Rounding fe...

InDesign is the current industry-fashionable publishing software. Yeah, it's pricey to purchase, since the program comes with a Creative Suite, hence, CS-6. Layout is much more finitely controllable using InDesign than most any desktop publishing program. InDesign, though a desktop program is the pu...

I'm working on a submission packet for a writing arts fellowship. The fellowship is a five-figure grant with few strings attached, meant to encourage the arts, give artists time and finances to set aside the everyday worries the grant affords. Many states' arts councils offer similar arts grants and...

Yes, JustLiz, any outlet that is open for book displays is a potential point of sale and promotion venue. developing a cordial relationship with a contact person is the hardest part. I've made book displays for countertops and floor areas, subject to retailer approval. Some of the retailers stipulat...

Welcome, psnoopydog, The Bransforum braintrust doesn't have as deep a backfield in creative nonfiction writers as for fiction writers. No matter, we have a few. Besides, creative nonfiction writing is much like fiction's, only creative nonfiction assumes a fact-based expression of truth or true acco...

Marketing has four corners: packaging, advertising, promotion, and publicity. Packaging a self-published book effectively, besides design considerations, can be as straightforward as independent ISBN assignment. Packaging also impacts the other three corners. A copy sent out as a gratis review copy ...