Amy Laurens's Blog, page 88

Plotting #1: My Biggest Flaw As A Writer

Being an English teacher is good for my writer ego. I used to think that probably I was just *stupid* for all the beginner mistakes I made – but going on seven years of high school* English teaching where students usually have to complete one creative response per semester, I’ve marked over1100 creative responses that have been predominantly written by ‘new writers’ – and I’ve learned that my mistakes weren’t actually mine after all, they were just ‘new writer’ mistakes. Woohoo. Go me. Etc.

*...

How To Dialogue

Dialogue punctuation is something I really harp on about to my students, because there are a lot of rules in fiction, and you can break every single one of them if you have a good reason – except dialogue. Yeah, okay, I know there are some big-name authors out there who DO break the rules of dialogue punctuation and paragraphing, but essentially, I tell my students, the rules of dialogue punctation and paragraphing are unbreakable, because they exist to make things clear to the reader. You wa...

LOST WOLF (Cool Book) + American Travel + Giveaway

Heya! Just popping by on my way to America to–

Wait, what? AMERICA?!?!

Oh, yeah. Didn’t I tell you that? I’m pretty sure I mentioned it on Twitter at least (once, or twice – a day… O:))… SO. I’M GOING TO AMERICA. LIKE, TOMORROW.* WHOOOOOOOOOA!!! I’m visiting the glorious Krista Ball for two nights, then heading up to the freezing wastelands of Alaska to see the twinny one, Liana Brooks. I’ll also get to meet up with Thea van Diepen, newly of Darkness&Good fame, as she generously plays airport...

How To Build A World From The Ground Up Week 5: Hot and Cold, Wet and Dry

So, a while ago I started the map-building series as a backlash against All Those Authors that get it Wrong, and as an attempt to prevent that happening in the future. I’ve talked about the very fundamental stuff – the underlying structure of the world, the fun you can have with hotspots and volcanos – and have developed a few rules to keep you on the right track:

– Lesson #0 in Map-Building: Always have a reason.
– Lesson #1 in Map Building: The mountains are where things crash together. So...

How To Build A World From The Ground Up Week 4: And Then It Exploded

I mentioned volcanos very briefly in the last post in this series in talking about where mountains are usually formed. Often, the volcanos appear where one plate is sliding under another, forcing the upper plate even up-er, and providing a weak spot for all that yummy magma and lava to come spewing out. Yay, fire and destruction!

But there is a second way for volcanos to appear, and since it isn’t on a plate boundary, it’s kind of a neat writerly world building trick that’s almost as good as...

How To Build A World From The Ground Up Week 3: Tall Pointy Things

To really understand how and why things work, it’s usually a pretty good idea to strip things back to their most basic level and build your way up from there. Maps are no different, if you want to get really serious. The world works in layers, and really good maps that Work will be designed around the same principles. If you want to go the full hog and draw all your layers (and drawing skills aren’t necessary, I promise), tracing paper is the medium of choice, because it allows you to stack a...

How To Build A World From The Ground Up Week 2: Groundwork

I realise from the outset that a lot of people will decide that this post isn’t relevant to them. And maybe, to some extent, that’s true: not every writer needs to know where mountain ranges are likely to pop up, especially if you’re writing in the ‘real world’. Still, mapping has its place for everyone. For example, the kitchen of a house doesn’t usually migrate from front to back to top floor to basement; the writer obviously knows where in the house it is, and I guarantee you there was a m...

New Free Short Story!

Hello! The Darkness&Good blog took a break there for a bit while Liana and I dealt with some Life Things, but I’m pleased to say that we’re open again for business, and free (mostly unedited) short stories will be going up at least 3 weeks out of every four over at http://darknessandgood.blogspot.com!

Let’s Celebrate! Have You Entered My EPIC FGU Giveaway Yet?

If you’re one of the ones playing along on social media, you’ve probably heard of my epic giveaway: to celebrate the impending release of From The Ground Up: How To Build A World That Really Works, aka my non-fiction handbook for writers that looks at the ways geography influences culture. It comes out in about two months (YAY!!), so I’m running a pre-release giveaway, because why not?

A Pretty Piece of Shiny Artwork: Cover Reveal!

Breaking radio silence to squee joyously over the cover reveal for the Twinny One, aka Liana Brooks, whose final book in the Time and Shadows series is due out in a scant 7 weeks! Wheee!! Buckle your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen; this one’s going to be a wild ride! Read on for a sneak peek at the first two pages…

Kindle Preorder| Nook Preorder|iTunes Preorder

Kindle Preorder| Nook Preorder|iTunes Preorder

Readers of Blake Crouch’s DARK MATTER and Wesely Chu’s TIME SALVAGER will love Liana...