Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Well, there's power in originality. Tolkien wrote something original and transformative that affected millions of readers, something that is still shaping the genre decades later. But that sort of originality is also difficult. Difficult for a writer to pull off, and difficult, often, for readers. N...

My writer's block is so bad that I hired a ghostwriter and the ghostwriter got writer's block.

It's difficult for me to articulate exactly what I mean, but I will say that I would absolutely love if each story within it had it's own trilogy. With it's own set of deep characters and fully fleshed out plots. I particularly think that the fall of Gondolin would be a tragic but beautiful tale. I...

johndavid wrote:I do have one question. Does the 'boss' post often on the threads? It would be nice to have an expert talking to us 'common folks'.

He does indeed.

All the cool kids write fantasy.

Okay, I admit, I'm kind of in love with the Dalkey Archive. If I ever won the lottery I'd simply buy their whole catalogue. Plus they give discount on bulk.

Also, a lot of people aren't too worried about the basic exposition of a bio, and really only want help on the synopsis part of the query. They just cut to the chase and post up the part they want critiqued.

Well, if the publisher still owns active rights on these titles, I'd say they're very relevant indeed.

Most contracts, as I understand it, have a no competition sort of clause in it. A writer can't put out a version of the story with another publisher (which is basically what Amazon becomes in this scenario) while the book is under contract/still in print, etc. Obviously Random House sees this as a v...

Just use the wordcount from Word - it's the standard these days, and allows a certain uniformity.

Some that haven't been mentioned: Steven Erikson (Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series) Glen Cook (Black Company series) Lloyd Alexander (Chronciles of Prydain) Joe Abercrombie Scott Lynch China Mieville Sean Russell Tad Williams Guy Gavriel Kay David Eddings (the early series, like The Be...

I can't even begin to fathom living in a place as cold as Canada. Cold? I wish. This Canuck is broiling in 90 degree heat with high humidity. Humidity in the 90% range. Who knew it even went that high? That's wetter than the Pacific. Every day a little more of my brain melts out my ears. Of course,...

Hey, I'm living just outside the ever glorious metropolis of The City of Windsor, Ontario. And I can probably chuck rocks at Aimee over in Michigan. Darn those Michiganders. Not as bad as those shifty-eyed Ohioans, though. :) Does being Canadian affect my writing? Probably. How? Not so sure. I admit...

No problemo.

It's funny, I just put up a blogpost today reviewing Lukeman's The First Five Pages and his A Dash of Style. And how the latter is the more interesting book...

This whole internet thing sure does make the world shrink, sometimes.