L.G. Estrella's Blog, page 58

On Kobe

One of the hardest parts about being a great player is knowing when to call it quits. Do you quit when you’re still on top, or do you go on a little longer because you can still contribute? Do you keep going because every now and then you can still have those performances that make everyone just sit back and talk about how great you are, or do you leave when consistently great becomes mostly good and before mostly good becomes sometimes okay?

Kobe is a player that I am very much conflicted ab...

Good Writing Is Like An Iceberg

Good writing is a lot like an iceberg. The vast majority of an iceberg’s mass and volume is actually underwater. In the same way, the vast majority of the work that goes into a good piece of writing is hidden from the reader.

Consider a typical fantasy novel. The world the characters exist in needs to be engaging, self-consistent, and immersive. The characters might only spend a chapter or two in a particular location, but the author has to carefully develop the background and setting for tha...

Improving Your Composition On Multiple Levels

Composition refers to the process by which a text is written, and it can occur on multiple levels. A writer can be skilled at one level of composition but unskilled at another. How well a text functions is a product of its composition across all levels.

So, what are these levels?

Word level.A text is made up of words, and the simplest level of composition is choosing the correct words. Sentence level.The purpose of words is to convey meaning, yet how words are arranged into sentences can dra...

Stay Busy

Writing is like a muscle, and like any muscle, it helps if you exercise it regularly.I do my best work when I can find a few hours to just sit down and write since it sometimes takes me a while to find my rhythm.Unfortunately, it isn’t always possible to find the time to sit down and have a good, long writing session. Sometimes, you have to make do and squeeze in a bit of writing here and there.

This is where staying busy is important.

When you only have a few minutes to write, tackling a lon...

How Not To Celebrate Halloween

Timmy wandered over to the window. He could have sworn that he’d heard children screaming. Sure enough, there was a gaggle of children running away from the castle like some kind of evil, demonic creature was after them. Given the fact that his castle was built over lightless chasms of unfathomable horror that concealed a primeval race of beings out to destroy the world, well, it was entirely possible that the children were, in fact, being chased by some kind of evil, demonic creature.

Oh wel...

Planning and Improvisation in Fiction

Planning is an important part of writing fiction. It plays a key role in ensuring that the plot, characters, setting, and ideas all fit together to deliver an engaging story. However, it is also important to remain flexible. No matter how much you plan out everything, it is extremely rare (if not impossible) for everything to go to plan.

The main reason for this is that writing works on several levels. Someone might be impressed by the overall direction of the plot but be put off by the actua...

Reading To Your Child

Let me start off by saying that I don’t have children. But I was a child once, and I have very vivid memories of my parents reading to me.

As adults, reading is often a very solitary pursuit. The vast majority of people read on their own. Sure, we often discuss what we’ve read with other people, but it’s rare for us to read something with someone else in a collaborative manner. Part of this is simple practicality. Once you can read, it’s just easier to read something yourself since you can re...

I Have Reached My Final Form

I have been playing video games since I was a four or five. One of my earliest memories is of playing Zelda so much on a NES that I injured my small hands trying to hold the rectangular controller.

Over the past decade, however, I’ve been undergoing a transformation from a person who games constantly to someone who games occasionally and rants about how much better things used to be‘back in my day’. In other words, I’ve reached my final form: cynical asshole.

I first realised this when I bega...

A Familiar Face

Almost every Thursday evening, my sister and I go to a certain shopping centre. It’s one of the most convenient times of the week for us to just hang out. The food court there is also pretty large, which is nice since I am a fairly fussy eater. I’m the sort of person who takes forever to find something to eat on the menu. Once I know what I like, though, I can happily order that same thing for years.

We usually sit in the same part of the food court. Most weeks there is this woman there. She...

Technique and Creativity in Writing

It’s easy to think of writing as a creative endeavour. But that’s not all it is. Writing is also very much a technical endeavour.

Consider something as outwardly simple as describing the appearance of a house. There are dozens of different ways to describe how a house looks, but different methods can lead to very different results. A short, concise description can convey a clinical or even disinterested atmosphere. A longer, more elaborate description might suggest a more engaged or observant...