Nathan Bransford - The Forums

One of us (S.B.) has publication credits, while I do not. We have not previously published anything we have written together.

Do we leave that information out, or list S.B.'s credits?

''Light from the full moon sliced the landscape into sharply detailed white highlights and dark blue shadows.''

Good I need to talk wth obsessive outliners. How is this layout in your opinion? Actually, Michael and I printed out a large calander (Julian days, because-- historical accuracy overkill?). We actually started with ''Day 0'', which was the incident that kicks off the novel, then talked out the logi...

I'm possibly being considered for an interview for an internship at a local magazine. First step in the door to the industry I want to be in. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed on this one. But that I'm being considered, when I merely cold-dropped my resume rather than applying directly for the ...

Michael is inspired by research and if he's out of ideas will go to some obscure corner of the library and read up on history stuff.
I like to go running, or cook.

Ours is totally unoriginal, just initials-- SBS for me (S.B. Stewart-Laing), and MJC for Michael.

Nineteen year-old Janet Nakano loves her brother Jude. That's why she has to kill his girlfriend. [Nice hook!] Janet and Jude have always been by each other's side since elementary school. Janet understood why Jude couldn't stand up to his tormentor in 10th grade, and Jude understood why Janet was s...

I (S.B.) just had one of my personal essays accepted for publication in the anthology Other Tongues, which will come out this November from Inanna Publications.

And readers often skim and miss things. Even with books they love. Truth. There can be a lot of factors in someone not liking your work-- personal taste, being in a bad mood (I know I give harsher critiques if I'm, say, having a bad day at work), cultural differences...You can look up lots of works...

S.B. and I outline obsessively-- or more to the point, S.B. insists upon outlining obsessively. We talk out the plot and most of the main twists and the ending. When we actually wrote the first draft, there were some minor revisions, but they were to sequence of events or the exclusion of some scene...

I'm certainly the ''storytelling'' type, and I was raised in cultures which really value oral history and myth. So if you like the immediate gratification of having an audience reaction, you might want to check out some performance venues, like storytelling events or open mics.

Take what you've got, and outline the story, and mark pieces as "written", "unwritten" or "problem". As you outline, you'll find the plot holes, etc. This is the time to fix them-- go in, and write into the outline the better/cooler/more logical scene/character reveal/plot point. Then go and write t...

Thanks everyone for being so helpful! Here is what Michael and I have at the moment. ** It’s winter, 1745. Scotland is losing a war for independence. The advancing British army has orders to leave no survivors. In desperation, Robert Maxwell and his fellow soldiers beg for supernatural aid from the ...

I think your opening works overall, though you might want to include some hint of what the character is waiting for. If we're in the MC's head, it seems borderline manipulative to withhold information that she's no doubt thinking about. Besides, I think it will help the reader get more invested in t...

I had a creative non-fiction writing class in college and some of us used to play this game every class period unofficially called "Our favorite sexy word of the day." We'd bring each other words that were incredible to say...nevermind their meaning. In spite of whatever Walter Scott had to say abo...