L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 57

Some Thoughts On Paragraphing

Paragraphs are important. If you’ve ever read something longer than a page or so that doesn’t use paragraphs, well, you’ll wish they had used paragraphs. But what is the best way to demarcate separate paragraphs? There are two common approaches:

Put a blank line between each new paragraph. Indent the first line of each new paragraph

The approach that is better often depends on a range of factors.

For instance, different publications have different style guides. If you’re submitting somethin...

The Trouble With Werewolves Is Now Available On Amazon

Ready to learn how to fight werewolves from a veteran agent of the Australian Department of Unusual Events? Well, you’re in luck.The Trouble With Werewolves is now available on Amazon. You can get it here, and here is the blurb:

Listen up rookies, I’m going to keep this short, and I’m going to keep this simple. If you’re going to be an agent for the Australian Department of Unusual Events, then you need to know how to deal with werewolves. And werewolves, rookies, are not pleasant creatures t...

Some Advice On Public Speaking And Lecturing (Part 2)

In my previous post on this topic, I examined some of the things that might help you give a speech or lecture, focusing specifically on the period of time leading up to the speech or lecture. What I want to focus on in this part is the day of the lecture itself.

First of all, you should not be using the day of the lecture to prepare your speech. Not only are you unlikely to write a good speech due to the small amount of time you have, you are also likely to make yourself even more nervous tha...

Old Stories

I just found an old folder on my computer with about fifty thousand words of pretty much finished original fiction.

Damn.

I need to keep better track of all my stuff. With a bit of polishing and some reworking, I can probably publish the lot as a collection. By my count I’ve got the following:

Three stories written in Lovecraftian style (two are science fiction and one is a Western) One contemporary fantasy story Two high fantasy stories One horror story One story written in the style of Asi...

Predator and Prey

The owl perched on the tree branch and peered into the darkness. Its keen eyesight picked up movement in the undergrowth nearby, and it readied itself to swoop down on whatever was foolish enough to leave the safety of the overgrown bushes and shrubs that lined the path through the forest.

Perhaps it would be a rabbit? It had been at least a week since the owl had enjoyed a nice, tasty rabbit.

Perhaps it would be a field mouse? It wasn’t unusual for field mice to wander into the forest and lo...

Internal Consistency

When writing science fiction or fantasy, one of the most important things to remember is internal consistency. Readers will eventually adapt to and accept almost any set of rules or guidelines if those rules or guidelines are enforced consistently. In other words, even if a particular fictional universe is completely whacky and zany, readers will generally be able to manage so long as that wackiness and zaniness follows the rules established by the author.

Let’s consider a couple of examples....

The Dentist’s Waiting Room

I had a dental appointment today, and I must confess that I was a bit anxious about it. My anxiety can probably be traced back to an incident in my childhood in which I had a tooth extracted but, for whatever reason, the anaesthetic applied did not actually work properly.

Cue screaming, horrible, horrible screaming, followed by my father pretty much kicking the door open demanding to know what was happening (go dad!). Funnily enough, we stopped going to that particular dentist soon after. I c...

Awkward Writing Mistakes

When you come up with the perfect name for your super evil villain only to realise it’s the the name of someone you know in real life. Wait… it’s your name. When you decide to kill off that warm, likeable character that everyone loves only to realise that you’ve already killed them off. When you want to add more detail to the scenery only to realise that you’ve spent the past four thousand words describing the cutlery. When you’re trying to write a totally realistic fight scene only to reali...

How Overpowered Characters Can Ruin A Story

It would be best, I think, to begin by defining the relevant term. An overpowered character is one that is far more powerful than the other characters in a story, to the point that the character in question may seem perfect or even god-like to the other characters. But how would such a character ruin a story?

Let’s consider a typical fantasy scenario: a group of heroes are on a journey to defeat the villain. The group contains five characters: a wizard, a ranger, a warrior, a priest, and the...

I Have Some Weird Nightmares…

Perhaps it says something about all the things rattling around in my head, but some of my nightmares are really quite odd and, I suppose, quite terrifying. Here’s one from today, perhaps influenced by some original fiction that I’m working on.

In my dream, I’m a government agent that has been assigned to protect this woman from supernatural threats. To help with that, I sleep in one corner of her bedroom in a fold-out bed.

The dream becomes a nightmare when, in the dream, I wake up to find my...