L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 51

Revisiting A Story

Something that I like to do from time to time is to revisit a story. Perhaps the most obvious reason to do this is because it’s generally quite fun to go back and read something that you’ve enjoyed in the past. It’s not unlike watching one of your favourite movies again. You get to enjoy it one more time. However, revisiting a story can also be a very informative experience.

Once a story has been publishedit rarely changes. Barring something like a revised edition, most published stories stay...

Dual Citizenship

As most of you are probably aware, I was not born in Australia. Today, I acquired dual citizenship. In other words, I am now a citizen of both Australia and the country of my birth.

Naturally, if I intend to run for political office in either country, I will have to renounce my dual citizenship. Alas, I shall have to content myself with scheming to become the supreme ruler of only a single country. Oh, well. I can barely even imagine the paperwork involved in ruling one country, never min...

The Importance of Failure

I’ll start off by statingthe obvious: failing hurts.

But failing can also be very important.

Think about all of the times you wrote something thatpretty much everybody liked. How much attention did you pay to the criticism you did receive? If you’re like me, you probably found it hard to focus on the criticism even if that criticism was quite constructive. The problem is that when almost everything works, it becomes incredibly easy to overlook what doesn’t work. Aspeople, we generally enjoy r...

Going Back To Bradbury

I had the pleasure, this weekend, of going back and reading through some of my favourite short stories by Ray Bradbury. I do like to return to my favourite authors from time to time, but it has been a while since I’ve returned to Bradbury.

What I love most about Bradbury’s short stories is how he can take a relatively mundane topic (e.g., a pair of shoes) and not only flesh out engaging characters but also make the ordinary extraordinary. He is every bit as good at capturing a young boy’s sen...

Halloween Hijinks

Here’s a little something I put together for Halloween since Halloween is exactly the sort of thing Timmy and company would enjoy.Please note that it contains spoilers from all three parts ofThe Unconventional Heroes Series.

Halloween Hijinks

Timmy wondered, not for the first time, if perhaps Katie was a tad demented. No, that wasn’t fair. His adorable apprentice was not demented so much as slightly megalomaniacal, and what was currently unfolding in the dining room was a case in point.

When...

The Importance of Relatable Humour

When writing something that is supposed to be humorous, it can be very easy to fall into the trap of making everything weird and zany. Although this can work, it can also fall flat if the weirdness and zaniness goes beyond the reader’s ability to suspend their disbelief.

One way to reduce the risk of going beyond the reader’s ability to suspend their disbelief is to start a story off in a relatively normal fashion before gradually increasing the more unusual elements of the story. This preven...

Why I Like To Write Humour

I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t always write humour. When I first started writing longer fiction as a teen, I tended toward more serious stories. If you look at the five authors who most influenced me as a writer, you’ll find that they’re not a particularly humorous bunch. For reference, those five writers are (in no particular order):

J. R. R. Tolkien H. P. Lovecraft Ray Bradbury Jack Schaefer Stephen King

Of those five, I would argue that King is the one who dips most frequently into hu...

Why Katie Doesn’t Go To A Regular Academy

Just a bit of amusement in the lead up to Halloween…

Timmy sighed. What hadhe been thinking sending Katie to a regular academy? She was certainly too clever to be in one, but he’d thought that the chance to socialise with more children her age might be good for her.

It had been – but not in the way he’d expected.

Katie was now the undisputed ruler of the academy. The other children had unanimously elected her supreme ruler after she had led a bloodless coup against the institution’s various...

True Love

Thanks to the wonders of romantic fiction, I have finally arrived at a complete understanding of true love. To save all of you the effort of trawling through countless romance novels, allow me to summarise some of my main findings.

True love can cause violent seizures. Given people’s tendency to tremble, shiver, or quake uncontrollably upon laying eyes on their beloved, I can only conclude that the majority of people go into seizures when they meet their soul mate. The next time you see some...

Keep Throwing Punches

As someone who has done martial arts and who also enjoys boxing, there’s something I’ve learned over the years. Sometimes, you just have to keep throwing punches. Nobody is invincible. If you can hit someone hard enough for long enough, they absolutely will go down. Writing is the same way.

There are going to be times when things look hopeless. You’re going to feel like no one is reading anything you write and that you aren’t improving at all. That’s okay. I like to think of those moments as...