Segway Characters (Or when your protagonist knows jack about the story)
This is the protagonist of a sci-fi or fantasy world, generally a nobody who gets dragged in either by circumstance or by being the...
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WELCOME TO ANNE BELLOWS BOOKS
The Writing Tips Blog of Many Colors
The new home of my Tumblr blog! Here you can find my curated tips on the writing process. Everything from worldbuilding and character design to story structure, themes, and tackling those tough tropes and archetypes, with a few top ten lists sprinkled about.
Jul 236 min read
“How do I know if my story needs work or if I’m just being hard on myself?”
As I sit here accepting the fact that at 70k words into Eternal Night’s sequel while waiting for my editor for Eternal Night itself, that...
Jul 233 min read
Creating Tragedy Through Human Error
One of my favorite sci-fi movies is Sunshine (07). In it, a team of highly skilled scientists is sent on a mission to our dying sun to...
Jul 234 min read
How to Make Your Writing Less Stiff Part 3
Once again, I am recirculating tried-and-true writing advice that shouldn’t have to compromise your author voice and isn’t always...
Jul 234 min read
On Using Measurements and Metrics in Fantasy
This is what I do and what I find more immersive, easier to write, less world-bending, and more productive: I don’t use actual metric or...
Jul 237 min read
Juggling Multiple POVS (Writing Like A Movie)
At one point in a WIP, I had one character being held captive, two characters on a quest to bust them out, two characters racing to join...
Jul 234 min read
Your colloquialisms are ruining the immersion (or, non-contemporary dialogue)
I am no expert here! Whenever I wrote historical fiction it was anachronistic historical fiction. This advice is from a reader’s...
Jul 236 min read
Bringing Characters Back from the Dead Without Pissing Off Your Audience
I don’t know if there’s an emotional rollercoaster out there quite shaped like an audience bawling their eyes out over the death of a...
Jul 234 min read
How to make your writing sound less stiff part 2
Again, just suggestions that shouldn’t have to compromise your author voice, as I sit here doing my own edits for a WIP. 1. Crutch words...
Jul 238 min read
What No One Tells You About Writing 8— “Anyone can write a book”
Yes. But actually no. I say “writing is easy” in that it doesn’t take a degree and textbook learning to understand. You can get an...
Jul 233 min read
How to make your writing sound less stiff
Just a few suggestions. You shouldn’t have to compromise your writing style and voice with any of these, and some situations and scenes...
Jul 234 min read
Another 5 Character Types the World Needs More of (Part 3)
1. Character who is immune to everyone else’s bullshit This can either be funny or a breath of fresh air. I’m talking your drama cast of...
Jul 234 min read
The Dos and Don’ts of Giving and Receiving Constructive Criticism
Some of these should be painfully obvious and yet. They come from experience. Receiving feedback: Do Understand that a criticism of a...
Jul 233 min read
Dialogue Tags Are Not Optional
I think I read too much fanfic. I must. Because fanfic has given me an unrealistic expectation of properly tagged dialogue that...
Jul 236 min read
A Guide to Productive Filler
I was going to write this post about the wonders of fanfic and how it does not do the “forced miscommunication for cheap drama” trope,...
Jul 233 min read
Checklist of character traits prone to inconsistency:
It’s great to give a lot of detail to character traits and personality quirks, but they aren’t real people, you’ve made them up, and...
Jul 236 min read
10 Plot Premises That Never Get Old
There’s a great many lists out there complaining about the worst and most overused tropes in fiction. I want to pass the mic to tropes...
Jul 236 min read
Writing Weather Part 2: Thunderstorms and Hurricanes + Hurricane Safety PSA
It’s hurricane season y’all!! Long before I knew about Pride Month, June 1st was the day I celebrated as the start of hurricane season....
Jul 236 min read
11 Underexplored Settings of Post-Apocalyptic Worlds
Inspired once again by my recent binge of abandoned explorations. The greatest hits of the sprawling city scapes and farmland that...
Jul 234 min read
Incorporating weather elements into your narrative
Weather and climate as worldbuilding are kind of like adverbs. Adverbs, as a concept, are not book kryptonite (despite what all the...
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