Hello again writers!
We’re away from our keyboard this week enjoying the holidays, but that doesn’t mean the writing advice needs to slow down, especially with a backlog as deep as Being a Better Writer‘s! So, while we’re catching up on our reading and gaming backlog, have this near decade-old Classic BaBW post to enjoy! Hit that jump, and we’ll see you with fresh content again soon.
Welcome, writers!
I’m off this week for Christmas, so this week won’t be a new Being a Better Writer post but a returning classic. And it’ll be the same next week as well. But, being topical, we’ve decided to dig back into an old worldbuilding post on the concept of holidays themselves!
Oh, but really quick, there IS one item of news. Everything’s on a Christmas sale this week. That’s right, Axtara, the UNSEC Space Trilogy, all of it. All on sale, all reduced. Even this year’s newest releases, The Phoenix and Blood Less Vile. If you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift, go to the books page! It’s through the week of Christmas, so you can even grab them for a bit after, but as always, don’t wait too long!
So Merry Christmas, and enjoy this trip through Being a Better Writer‘s archives! See you in 2026, and hit the jump!
Welcome once more writers! We’re on the final topic of Topic List #26. Yeah, that’s right: Since I started numbering these around ten years ago we’ve gone through twenty-six full lists of writing topics to discuss. In another ten years, we’ll have hopefully passed fifty!
Now, this does mean that sometime this week there will be a Topic Call post for those of you who’d like to see something specific covered. But I’ll have spent this last weekend (as I write these posts in advance) figuring out some new topics for the newest list, so it won’t be empty as is.
For now though, if you’re enjoying Being a Better Writer but want to see something specific covered (or have an inkling that you’d like to) start thinking about it! Oh, and don’t forget to check out last week’s news. It was a very quick, short post, but it was for something cool!
And with that, let’s talk about the last topic from list #26. Let’s talk about adding small details in the edit. Hit the jump!
Continue readingHey folks! I’m still on break until the New Year, so until next Monday, enjoy a classic Being a Better Writer blast from the past! Merry Yuletide and a Happy New Year!
Don’t forget, our Patreon Supporters, Bugsydor, Mary, Kirishala, Jack of a Few Trades, Alamis, Seirsan, Miller, Lightwind, Piiec, Wisehart, Taylor, Ross, Frenetic Pony, Morgan Gines, Dmytro Shulga, Peet, Vegetable Sorbet, and Foe for support Unusual Things and help keep it advertisement free! No popups here! Join their ranks! Or buy a book!
Now, I don’t actually remember the circumstances by which this topic came to be on the list (could have been LTUE), but either way, the topic is a good one. Hang out in a writing-centric thread online or attend a writing workshop—sands, even look in the comments of a public page for an author or attend a panel—and eventually, probably fairly quickly, you’ll hear a question or comment that’s a lot like the following:
I have this great idea/concept/story/character, but the moment I try to sit down and write them, I just run out of steam. I can’t get it/them written. How do I do this?
Now, the exact phrasing may vary, but trust me, you’ll here the sentiment, echoed from a number of beginning writers. And you won’t even have to wait long. It’s a question that comes up all the time.
And you know, to be fair, it’s not exactly a bad question. A poor one, maybe, but not a bad one. And it’s one that’s often reflected by the faces and situations of many more in whatever assorted audience is present than the one who asked. Crud, I’m certain that it’s a question that some of the authors who have been forced to scramble for an answer themselves once voiced, though perhaps internally.
But … it’s still a poor question. I certainly wouldn’t call it a good one. Not poor enough that it isn’t worth tackling in this post, but not the best question either.
Why? Well, let me answer that before I get into the deeper-roots behind the question. The question is a poor one because 90% of the time the individual asking it is asking for a silver bullet. A solution that doesn’t exist. I entirely suspect that if, when asked this question, whoever was asked responded with “Well, are you using X program?” or “Are you sitting in this kind of chair?” there would be a massive sale of said product in the audience that had asked.
Again, I shouldn’t batter these poor souls too badly. After all, they are beginners. But as beginners, when asking this question, the answer they get is hardly the answer they want (and sometimes, they’ll tell you). They’re inexperienced enough to think that all it takes is an idea, a pen or a keyboard, and a little bit of writing, and boom! Story! And the problem with that is that, as all writers know, there is no silver bullet. There’s no magic “thing” or element that anyone can just do to take a story from an idea to a finished product (or at least a halfway competent one). And in that regard, the question is poor.
Now, that said, it wouldn’t take much to “fix” it so that we can give it a real answer. If we rearrange it a little, tweak a few of the words a bit, we get something much more workable. Something like:
I have a good idea/story/concept/character, but the when I sit down to try and write it, I start having trouble. How do I take it from an idea to a finished work? What are the steps there?
Welcome back writers, to Being a Better Writer! Better yet, welcome to a post fresh off of Topic List #26! That’s right, we’ve passed #25!
Yeah, okay, it’s a milestone that means more to me than it does to all of you. But hey, it’s still a milestone!
But before we hop into today’s topic, don’t forget to check out last Thursday’s return post, as it’s chock-full of post Thanksgiving news! Plus a small OP-ED, and even some new Axtara fanart!
Speaking of Axtara, Christmas is coming! Do you know anyone who our loveable banking dragon’s adventures would make the perfect gift for? They might be a little big for a stocking, by they’re perfectly hefty and suitable for wrapping! And there are two of them for double the reading pleasure!
Book three, Armies and Accounting, is on its way. Check that news post if you want to know more.
If your answer to this is “read them both” then I suggest you check out the rest of my library, maybe starting with Shadow of an Empire.
Oh! And I do have one other announcement that I forgot to include in Thursday’s post: Unusual Things has a Bluesky now!
Yeah, that’s right, finally opening up the social media tap a little bit more. Twitter’s account for the site I closed years ago when the site started going down the tubes—not that it was much of a loss because “Book Twitter” was never a good place and more an ouroboros of influencers all trying to play the system for their own benefit.
Will Bluesky end up much better? Well, I hope so. They’re certainly making better decisions than Twitter did. Letting people block accounts, for one, or choose what content they want to see (where Twitter took that option away and started shoving its own content at you, something that really was a dumb move, since I didn’t join to see Elon’s latest unhinged political rants, but writing and gaming folks). These all seem like better iterations of what the original concept behind Twitter was before it slowly toppled into insanity as it tried to make more and more money.
Anyway, go ahead and check it out if you’re a Bluesky user. It’s already tied into the site feed, so all posts from the site will be automatically linked there, which is good news for those of you who used to use Twitter as an RSS feed for the site. You know, before Twitter decided for you that you didn’t want that anymore.
Okay, that’s the last news bite, I promise. So let’s hit the jump and dive into today’s topic! Which, if you’ve checked the title up there, is an interesting one you don’t often hear of when talking about writing. Nevertheless, I think it’s a fairly vital one, and key in making a world feel real to an audience.
Why? Hit that jump, and let’s talk about it.
Continue readingHey folks! I’m out of the office this week attending Thanksgiving, so this week’s Being a Better Writer post is a blast from the past! November of 2017, to be specific. And it’s a pretty nifty one. Give it a read, and I’ll see you next week!
When you go to the grocery store, what do you call the wheeled apparatus that you collect your groceries in? Is it a shopping cart? Or is it a carriage? Or a trolley?
I’m willing to bet that a good number, if not most of you said “shopping cart.” But if you were from the American northeast—say, Connecticut or Rhode Island—there’s a high chance that you said “Carriage” instead. Or that you might say “bubbler” instead of “water fountain.” Or “soda pop” instead of “soda.” Or crud, maybe you’re even one of those individuals who calls all sodas “coke.” You know, as in “Get me a coke,” followed by “What do you want?” and “Oh, a Pepsi.”
All of these differences (and many, many more, from snow machine to snowmobile) are examples of what are know as “regional dialects.” Which makes today’s post a bit of a companion piece to last week’s on accents. And, I must admit, this topic wasn’t on the list, but after a comment about the concept by reader ocalhoun (no, I don’t know how you pronounce that either, but I’ve always read it as “o-cull-hoon”) brought up the subject, I realized that it was worth posting about, rather than just giving it an offhand mention as I had previously done.
So, dialects! What are they, how do they come about, and—this part is a bit key—what separates a dialect from an accent? Because yes, they are two different things. You can have two individuals with the same accent but a different dialect.
Thank you yet again to our Patreon Supporters, Bugsydor, Mary, Kirishala, Jack of a Few Trades, Alamis, Seirsan, Miller, Lightwind, Piiec, Wisehart, Taylor, Ross, Frenetic Pony, Morgan Gines, Dmytro Shulga, Peet, Vegetable Sorbet, and Foe for supporting Unusual Things and helping keep it advertisement free! No popups here!
If you’d like to support as well, then please check out the Patreon Page (and get access to some bonus exclusive content) or if you’re particular to a one-time donation, please purchase a book? You can even do both! You can also join Unusual Things‘ Discord channel, The Makalay Camp!
Hey folks! I got sick this weekend, so today’s post is a look way back into the archives. November of almost ten years ago, in fact!
But it’s a neat enough post. If you’re new around here you may have never read it before, and if you’re a veteran, you know the value of studying things you already know to refresh your memory.
So without further ado. here’s a Classic Being a Better Writer to sink your teeth into. Enjoy.
See, naming things can actually be pretty tricky. When creating a world from scratch, or even just a redesigned/repurposed version of our own world, often one of the first things a lot of young writers do is assign their characters, places, and things very interesting names. It’s kind of a trope by this point, but if I had to guess my prediction would be that to the new writer, the goal is to excitedlyshow you how fantastical their world is. So they don’t have people with names like Joe or Samantha. They have people with names like Krul’Qa’pin or something like that. And they live in the city of Byulnqualalaltipo! Aren’t those fantastic?
Well, in sense, sure. They’re also completely unpronounceable, for a start. And that is just the start.
Thank you once more to our Patreon Supporters, Bugsydor, Mary, Kirishala, Jack of a Few Trades, Alamis, Seirsan, Miller, Lightwind, Piiec, Wisehart, Taylor, Ross, Frenetic Pony, Morgan Gines, Dmytro Shulga, Peet, Vegetable Sorbet, and Foe for supporting Unusual Things and helping keep it advertisement free!
If you’d like to support as well, then please check out the Patreon Page (and get access to some bonus exclusive content) or if you’re particular to a one-time donation, please purchase a book? You can even do both! You can also join Unusual Things‘ Discord channel, The Makalay Camp!
Hey writers! Max here. As I warned last week, my move has left me without internet for a–hopefully small–period.
So, I’ll be writing short stories to submit to Hemelein’s Honor and Glory call today. And unpacking.
You readers, though? You get a classic post from Being a Better Writer‘s past. Inspired by a discussion I saw this weekend, let’s talk about how you start your first chapter. You ready? Then hit that jump!
Welcome back, writers, to the final Being a Better Writer post … of Topic List #23. Sorry couldn’t resist. If some of you felt a flash of panic there, well, then my prank has been carried out to my satisfaction.
But yes, it is the final topic from Topic List #23. Which means next week, we’ll be starting over with a new list, #24! But it also means that requests are now open to what topics deserve to be on that list. So if you haven’t yet, please head on over to the topic call or even just post below if you’re in a real hurry, and let us know what writing topics you would like to hear about in the upcoming months!
Oh, and don’t worry if the topic is one we’ve covered before. BaBW has been around for over ten years. At this point, we’ve covered a lot of topics, and retread and revisited topics more than once. In fact, today’s topic was covered about nine years ago, but here we are again covering it once more. So you can request something we’ve covered before. At this point, it’s hard not to step on familiar ground.
With that said, let’s dive into today’s topic and start talking writing. Today we’re talking about character foils, a trait that is important for any writer to understand and acknowledge … even if we’re only using it sparingly.
And to understand that, I want to start out by discussing something that doesn’t seem to have any application to writing at first glance. I want to talk about The Rockettes. The Rockettes are a long-standing US-based dance company who perform in a number of annual shows. Most people who know a little bit of history associate them with the famous New York City Radio Music Hall. We won’t go into the history here, the key thing you need to know is that they’re a dance troupe.
A large dance troupe that nonetheless manages to keep its dancers to some really specific requirements. For example, when performing in one single line, part of the visual flair is that all of the Rockettes are the exact same height.
Or are they? Because they actually aren’t. Though the troupe has some strict requirements by necessity of their performances, the actual height of the members involved can vary by as much as five and a half inches. Put two dancers that have a half-a-foot of height difference between them next to one another and you’ll certainly see it. So how, despite this, do all the Rockettes appear to be the same height?
Perspective. Specifically, perspective using contrast. What does this mean, and what does it have to do with writing? Hit the jump, and let’s find out.
Continue readingWelcome, readers and writers!
Unfortunately, I’m still away from my home dealing with the aftermath of a family emergency/natural disaster. You can find more details here if you haven’t heard what is going on, but be warned, as it’s pretty severe. Suffice it to say, as noted last Friday, my life is in a very unexpected place right now and I’m still trying to manage things as best I can. Again, you can check the links for details.
For now, however, there’s been a holiday gap longer than normal, so it’s time to at least partially get things running again. I don’t quite have the time to do a new Being a Better Writer post yet, but I can at least pull up some older posts (with ten years worth of weekly articles, there’s a lot to choose from). So this week, and for the first BaBW post of the New Year, let’s talk about Show Versus Tell.
So without further ado, let’s dive right into it. Hit the jump, and let’s talk writing!
Unusual Things 