Articles

Managing Goals In Your Story - Celena Salyers
'...By finding out the answer to 'what is the goal?' and 'what is needed to accomplish the goal?', you can troubleshoot a lot of scenes.'

Killing 'em Softly - Naa-Dei Nikoi
'..fighting (organized) is essentially a social affair. Fighters succeed as a group and they fail as a group. And as a group, when things go wrong, things can be bizarre and catastrophic --'

Angles - Terrianne
'..you've got to decide whether you're going to work in first, second or third person. The decisions you make are going to affect the whole shape of your story or novel..'

What's the Point? - Celena Salyers
'..defining conflict and obstacles through hypothetical questions and answers to give your story a journey and a goal..'

Planet Spectra and Star Classes - Naa-Dei Nikoi
'...Life as we know it is thought most likely to occur around stars of type F, G and K since they are long-lived enough to support the evolution of life...'

Mary Sue and Family - Celena Salyers
'Everyone in the story likes Mary Sue... But Mary Sue has an evil twin. In fact she has a whole family...'

When Writer and Beta Reader Disagree - Celena Salyers
'All beta-writer relationships have something to offer, even the tough ones. Don't let a beta get you down, ...'

Big Scenes and Uncertain Words - Celena Salyers
'You can usually find the point the story went wrong where emotions started running high...'

Defining Mary Sue from the Character Specialist - Julieann
'a Specialist does not necessarily have to be a Mary-Sue, just because you wrote it. But the word 'outshine' that you used says ...'

Mecha-nations - Naa-Dei Nikoi
'there are certain considerations that ought to prevent one from building a flying terror machine 200 meters wide...'

Slaying the Hydra - Naa-Dei Nikoi
'The real advantage of a mecha is how little gets committed into a target...'

A Better Beta - Naa-Dei Nikoi
'A beta reader is the lucky person who gets first dibs on a tantalizing piece of fanfic then gets to mouth off to the writer about it...'

The Big Easy - Nancy Ford
'Every now and then, a discussion arises... as to the nature of fan fiction (derivative) writing versus the nature of writing entirely original work...'

Blood - Not Just a Pretty Color - Sal
"The floor was red with blood" or "his pants were red with blood". Not exactly wrong statements, but misleading.

Random Thoughts on Writing - Terrianne
'We write a particular type of fiction, with its own rules and circumstances; fanfic published to a mailing list. That poses a unique challenge...'