Category: Experiments in Writing

An Experiment in Writing – Part 5: More on Openings – Establishing Voice, Atmosphere, Setting, POV, and Narrator

Picking up from where we left off in past experiments in writing…

What I’ve discovered so far is these posts are going to be all over the place. Don’t look for a thread because, as I mention in this entry, something I mention in experiment 3 triggers something important and worth sharing but who knows when it’ll get into its own post?

I’ve learned to live with my shortcomings and would appreciate it if you’d do the same.

Both with mine and your own.

Because you know you have them and if you don’t admit to and acknowledge them, your characters will be flat, bland, and hollow, and who wants to read about characters like that? The world is already full of shallow, bland people. No need to populate your writing with them.

Anyway, on to establishing voice, atmosphere, setting, and narrator…

 
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Great Opening Lines posts
Katherine Mansfield via Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Mar 2019’s Great Opening Lines)
JD Salinger via Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Jan 2019’s Great Opening Lines)
Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan of the Apes) via Great Opening Lines – and Why! (Nov 2024’s Great Opening Lines)

An Experiment in Writing – Part 4: More on Closings

Picking up from where we left off in An Experiment in Writing – Part 3: More on Openings, Closings, we’re going a little more into closings.

Just so we’re all clear on this, these Experiments in Writing posts are more for me. I hope you get something from them, yes, and I’m using them more to learn where I need work, to discover what I don’t yet understand fully if at all, and to keep myself improving.

I’m really doing these for myself, solipsist that I am…

And now, more on closings…

 
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Pick up a copy of Empty Sky and/or The Augmented Man, the books I reference in this post (should you not already have them (shame on you!)) and want to follow along.

FYI, future Experiments in Writing will cover

  • Exposition via dialogue
  • Action scenes
  • Language/word choice
  • Exposition
  • and a whole lot more…if I even get to them.

An Experiment in Writing – Part 3: More on Openings, Closings

Picking up where we left off in An Experiment in Writing – Part 2: Openings, here’s Part 3: More on Openings, Closings. Enjoy.

 
More on Throughlines.

Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Pick up a copy of Empty Sky, one of the books I’ll be referencing in this series (should you not already have one (shame on you!)) and want to follow along.

An Experiment in Writing – Part 2: Openings

Because I had so much fun in Part 1, here’s An Experiment in Writing – Part 2. Enjoy.

 
Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me or schedule a critique of your work.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Pick up a copy of Empty Sky, one of the books I’ll be referencing in this series (should you not already have one (shame on you!)) and want to follow along.

An Experiment in Writing – Part 1

Been talking to lots of people about ways to share my knowledge and experience.

The first problem is, lots of people are of the opinion I have lots of knowledge and experience.

I’m hoping this experiment – a series of videos about writing which I’ll post every Wednesday or so…if it even becomes a series and if I see another Wednesday – will help them change their opinion.

Originally I called these “Writing 101 SnEm” (SnEm == series and episode number) and decided that both ambitious and haugty.

Ambitious I’ll cop to. Haughty? You decide.

Here’s An Experiment in Writing – Part 1. Enjoy.

 
Pick up a copy of Empty Sky, one of the books I’ll be referencing in this series (should you not already have one (shame on you!)) and want to follow along.