Friday 24 April 2020

Top 10 Writing Articles from 2019

Time for my other top 10 of the year! And by time, I mean about five months late. Because... erm... wow. Good going me, eh? Not. But here it is - the 10 articles on creativity, writing and what not that I found last year that helped me.

Katharine Kerr's Thoughts - A late discovery in the year for me, this is a number of small articles talking about genre and story type among other things. The one on the Roman Fleuve is my favourite as it is the sort of ambitious story that's water to a writer's soul, but all of its worth reading

Why Paul McCartney couldn't believe he'd wrote Yesterday - I love talking about ideas. We talk a lot about good prose, and some about good storytelling - and a lot more about avoiding bad prose and bad storytelling - but we only talk a little about ideas. To me, this article was a great reminder than the world is simply full of ideas just everywhere, so many our mind sometimes forgets all of them. Just got to keep your mind receptive to bringing them in.

Top 10 tips for being a best-selling author - Now there's a clickbait headline. But I like the article. It's less talking about how to write, how to have ideas, and how to be a writer in terms of how to approach your projects. I don't agree with it all of it but most of its worth thinking about and I hugely agree with thinking "What If".

How Do Some Authors "Lose Control" Of Their Characters? - One of my favourite articles from last year because I love looking into how our trained sub-conscious helps us. It's not necessarily so useful for actual writing, but could be a great jumping point for how to train our sub-conscious more and more.

The Shape of Stories - Ahem. So this by me. And I feel embarrassed to do this. But I do re-read this one often and think "Wow, I really hit on something important that I don't see talked about enough". It's a tricky line between telegraphing plot points and not foreshadowing them enough to make sense and returning to the thoughts I put down here helps me walk a line - and make sense of the books I read.

For Prizewinners - This is the transcript of a speech by Harry Matthews to a set of literary prize winners and I really need to read it again because it is dense with info. I suspect there are people who listened to it who were asleep halfway through trying to keep up with it. But I suspect most of them were enthralled, because it is elegantly put and full of interesting thoughts. A real smorgasbord on writing.

Why The Cleganebowl Disappointed So Many - One of my favourite discoveries of last was how much good stuff was hidden in tweet threads. This one by David Dalglish on where the Cleganebowl went wrong brought up a number of good points about what makes combat scenes really sing.

Narrative Momentum - This one introduced a new concept that made instant to me; Narrative Momentum. That is, to quote CC Finlay direct, "a combination of pacing and our engagement with the character or stakes". Very useful, particularly as a reviewer.

How to Boost Your Creative Thinking - A writer is only ever as good as their ideas, which is why I love articles like this. Does it sound rather corporate-y? Yes. Are there good ideas to borrow? Yes. Restriction, Movement, and Mood are my three favourite tools there, although I should probably try absurdity more often.

The Real Reason Fans Hate The Last Season of Game of Thrones - Probably my favourite article from last year, both for the idea of sociological storytelling and because of what it nailed on the problems of shifting tone and focus on fans. Any blurb beyond that would not give it justice.


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