Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Just finished Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz. Currently reading Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay by Michael Chabon and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I'm fascinated by Historian . The slow pace makes it realistic and thereby interesting, but slowness of pace also sometimes makes me put i...

I notice that if I go too long without reading, then I'll lose the ability to write, but whenever I read, I can't stop myself from writing too. The inspiration percolates. Blog post, love poem, novel, Facebook Note, etc. I have to write something.

Writing is wonderful when you're full of ideas and passion. It's less wonderful when you're not. I can hardly blame you for choosing to experience the wonderful part, again and again, while avoiding the less-than-wonderful part. But there's a cost, which you're clearly experiencing now. For me, writ...

polymath, what does "three rising action scenes" and "three falling action scenes" mean?

I've always thought of writers as members of a special club. I've never been inclined to discuss writerly issues with non-writers. How could they possibly understand?

I'd love to see a good alien/pirate/cops and robbers mashup. Maybe alien raiders who rob the planet and take off and then alien cops show up later to track them down. And some humans help the cops by leaving the planet with them.

I just read the entire thread and I'm noticing a definite food theme in cheeky's notifications. I like these food-related holidays!

LOST ending disappointed me for four reasons. #1. There was no huge battle in the end. For pretty much the entire final season, they were all preparing for this huge battle. I was whet for a battle. It was reduced to a fist fight between the doc and the bald guy. Grr! #2. That smoke monster was the ...

First time to the thread. Hilarious! I just want to say that Ray Bradbury wrote the vacation-in-time short story and I loved it as a kid.

My thought today: Could I be happy in a polyandrous marriage? (One Wife, Two or More Husbands) I'm a man, by the way.

A guy in my critique group is like a machine. He has great solutions for every problem I encounter. He's like in his 70's and I think he's read every book ever written and memorized their plots. A machine, I tell you.

glj, that is one of the clearest and most helpful critiques I've seen. Thank you sooo much. I knew the opening stuck me as a little lackluster, but now I can see so clearly what I was missing before. dios4diva confirmed it. I'm over writing it. Too many similes and too much description right up fron...

AnimaDictio - I have to admit, your second line made me think your protagonist was a horse at first, with the galloping heart and flaring nostrils. This certainly introduces tension from the get-go! It's easy to empathize with a mother who's fearing that her only son has been caught out in a deadly...

This is why I'm not discouraged by Dean Koontz's genius. I'm great at editing and revising until I get what I want, even if it takes a lifetime.

dastardly? diabolical?

I sound like an eighteenth century train robbery caper.

I agree that old science fiction isn't as fiction-y anymore, but I don't think it's any harder today to come up with advanced technology that feels whiz-bang fiction-y. Consider how every single one of our institutions - marriage, school, government, religion - will change when artificial intelligen...