Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Author! Author! gave a pretty good and long post on synopsis lengths.

http://www.annemini.com/?p=6947

The first three books in the Otori series do that. When my husband and I were discussing third vs first person, he didn't even realize it had both. He was too engaged in the story. The last of the Otori books, though, are in 3rd person with lots of viewpoints and it drives me nuts. I thought the aut...

I do see why someone would want to keep their idea secret. If I were to write a story about shiny vampires and their vapid teenage lovers, I could right the most amazing story ever, but it kind of has been done. Of course the problem is, if you have come up with this idea, odds are someone else has ...

I would be wary of having every chapter be the same length in general. If lengths are all similar, you risk becoming monotonous- similar to how you don't want all the same paragraph lengths or sentence lengths.

I think it was over on critters where they discussed theft, but too lazy to look up to be sure. The poster claimed that most beginning writer's are terrified that their idea will be stolen. The problem is, books aren't published based on ideas. They are published because of the writing- the voice of...

If you are doing a retelling of fairy tale or other literary work, when do you mention this? All names are changed and characters have different personalities, but key story elements are the same: ex: Clueless is a retelling of Emma, Bridget Jone's Diary is Pride and Prejudice. Also, does when you t...