Improving your craft – The Fellowship Of Ink

Why you should read shitty writing.

Great writing can be a little too good.

You learn in the editing

On good days writing a great scene is effortless. Other times it’s like pulling ugly knives out of your urethra. Alas, neither of these helps you become a better writer.

Grab your reader by the collar

How am I gonna put the book down after reading that?

Great Writing is like a Great Calzone

Whether it’s a written story or Italian cuisine, even the best ingredients need to be well layered

Is your exposition good or bad?

What if I gave you a maxim you could use to identify good exposition?
A sentence that’d immediately tell you if your exposition is working or not…

Character and Theme: A look at Gideon the Ninth

I often considered theme an afterthought within a story, preferring instead to focus on plot and character. Here’s why I was wrong.

This popular writing advice is wrong.

The heartbreaking truth is that thousands of writers out there have spent years writing multiple books, yet with fairly little improvement since their first. Why? How?

There are as many different ways to tell a story as there are stories to tell. Many writers worry about how they write: whether they’re writing too fast or too slow, whether their outline is too detailed or too sparse, or whether their story is even any good. When I started taking writing seriously, I’dContinue reading “How should I write?”

You’re Terrible… But That’s Okay

I came across a thread on Reddit where a new writer was asking for advice on how to improve and avoid mistakes. So here’s my advice to new writers. You ever see someone get on a bike for the first time, and wheelie perfectly? Or someone bounce on a trampoline, and effortlessly backflip? Then whyContinue reading “You’re Terrible… But That’s Okay”

Every Line Matters

If you’ve spent any amount of time trying to improve your writing skills, you will undoubtedly have come across the idea that every line should be significant. New writers often rebuke this as pure nonsense. Arguing that great writing can carry the reader through inconsequential moments. “Sure,” they say, “this shopping list from 2350 mayContinue reading “Every Line Matters”