MLT

"Oh?  You want to lay down the law then on whether I should swear or not?  Go ahead then.  Hit me with your best shot.  Because I have my own strong opinions about the subject and you're not going to change them." Sigh. No.  This isn't about a person's choice to swear or not.  That's their own.  This is about an author's choice to have their characters swear in their books.  Should you have swear words in your book, or not?  There are a lot of different factors that lead authors to one choice or another.  I want to talk about a few of those factors. It can be said that it's the character's nature to swear - their personality, their heritage, their upbringing - and so not writing out the swear words would be detrimental to establishing their nature.  For example, "Hard Magic" by Larry Correia starts with a Polynesian farmer who has more than a few firm words to say about his situation.  The farmer's character would have ...

Hello again, friend!  Thanks for taking the time to read this!  Do you know what your support means to me?  This website keeps track of how many views a post gets and I am grateful for every view.  I sit here with my laptop and smile at the fact that someone, somewhere, took time out of their day to see what I've written.  It makes writing feel more worthwhile than a simple exercise in sharing my thoughts.  So, thank you.  :) On to other matters that do not revolve around me or my writing!  Do you know what's happening where you live?  I'm not talking about road construction that makes your drive to work inconvenient.  I'm asking if you know what production your local theatre is doing.  Your high school is rearing up for a concert, do you know when it is?  What about that one hole-in-the-wall restaurant? Well, do you? Maybe you know about Endgame  and already have tickets.  Or about how Josh Groban is finally ...

Have you ever watched someone draw a detailed picture start to finish?  I'm not talking about those time lapses that are popular on YouTube.  I'm talking about the sketching, the erasing, the coloring, the inking, the finishing, the whole thing.  It's unlikely that you have unless you were the one creating the picture.  Why?  Because IT'S BORING.  Especially if it's something repetitive, like scratch art.  One of the only ways someone can stare at a creation for hours is if they're actively involved in the process.  Even then, artists can grow weary of their work and speed up the process.  This inevitably results in works that look half done. Because they are. Once upon a time I was working on an art piece that I wanted to do right.  Start to finish.  Perfect.  But I knew the risk of speeding up was real, and the medium I was using at the time was unforgiving, so I didn't want to chance ruining the piece.  So I set...

Once upon a time there was a girl, she met a boy and they felt an immediate attraction for one another!  But circumstance made it impossible for the two to be together.  Through a series of miscommunications, internal struggles, and a villain or two, their love grows.  Finally they kiss and ride off together into the sunset, happy at last! Because obviously, being alone is terrible.  You can only be happy when you're in a relationship.  But of course not marriage!  You can't be happy in marriage either!  Stories about married couples are about abuse, or one of them dies so that the other can find a different person to be in love with. Why are these the only choices?  Why??  Why do all the romance books out there cut the story off just as it was starting to get interesting?  Because it's the story that sells.  Initial love is high with emotion, fast paced, and very easy to see - and therefore - to write.  Love after marria...