I’ve written in the past about using Habitica to help organising and motivating my writing. For me, it’s one of the most useful tools out there. I’ve now written a full review of it as a writing tool for Re:Fiction, so if you’re interested in resources to help you get motivated you can read about it here.
Tag: Refiction
Writing Steampunk
I recently wrote an introduction to the steampunk genre and writing in it for Re:Fiction. It covers the appeal of steampunk, different styles, and how to appeal to readers. So if you’re interested in steampunk and writing then you can check it out here.
And if you’d rather be reading steampunk, check out my steampunk books and stories.
Creating Suspense
Alfred Hitchcock, the master of this sort of storytelling, defined the difference between suspense and surprise as a matter of knowledge. If the audience doesn’t know that there’s a bomb beneath the characters’ table then you can achieve a few seconds of surprise when the bomb goes off. If the audience knows about the bomb but the characters don’t then you can achieve a whole scene’s worth of tension, as the audience wait with baited breath to see whether the bomb will be uncovered and what will happen when it explodes…
For more on this, check out my new article on maintaining suspense over at Re:Fiction. I talk about different approaches to building tension, and take the opportunity to talk a bit about The Wire.
Writing About Writing on Refiction
Looking to sharpen your writing skills? Or maybe crack the fundamentals of fiction? Then you might want to check out Refiction, a site I’ve recently been hired to write monthly posts for.
Some of the posts are on basics like the advantages, disadvantages and nuances of first person point of view, so more for the beginner writer. There’s also my take on how best to bring a character to life, and as time goes by there’ll be more of the sort of articles I sometimes write here, giving my approach to aspects of writing.
If you want to check it out, you can find a list of my articles here, and there’s plenty of interesting stuff from other writers as well.
Happy reading, and have fun writing!