Relatable.

Originally shared by Writers Write

When you take the advice to keep pen and paper next to your bed…

So, seriously, why is it that every urban fantasy these days has a heroine with a man’s name, like Hank or Charlie or Fred?

Is it like the green eyes thing in YA?

(Which I don’t understand either.)

If literary fiction isn’t formulaic, then why can so much of it be summarized as “Broken people descend through helplessness into hopelessness?”

Discuss.

Originally shared by Standout Books

In broad strokes, genre fiction foregrounds story, literary fiction foregrounds character.

Find out more with ‘What You Need To Know About Literary Fiction’.

For me, the important things about Le Guin were her focus on the many possible ways of being human; her clear, effortless style; and the interiority of her stories.

You?

Originally shared by Standout Books

Great authors find, and inspire, a kind of sympathy for their protagonists.

Find out more with ‘3 Ways Ursula K. Le Guin Can Help You Improve Your Writing’.

Also a good way to check you’re not committing anachronism.

Originally shared by Joanne Manaster

How old were you when CRISPR got added to the dictionary? And what were your grandparents doing when DNA made its first appearance?

Now you can find out. Merriam-Webster has been promoting a search tool that lets you look up the words that got added to dictionary in the year you were born, or any other year dating all the way back to 1500. (Incidentally, the word illness got added that year.)

Blurb:

“The year is 1095, Normandy, France. Five year old Skylar…”

Yeah, no, you lost me right there.

Behindthename.com has this to say about Skylar/Skyler/Schuyler:

From a Dutch surname meaning “scholar”. Dutch settlers brought the surname to America, where it was subsequently adopted as a given name in honour of the American general and senator Philip Schuyler (1733-1804).

This isn’t hard, people.

How deeply do you take readers into the minds of your characters?

Originally shared by Amanda Patterson

Quotable – John le Carré, born 19 October 1931. Read more here: http://bit.ly/2xuHOVh

If nothing else, read myth, legend, and medieval and renaissance literature – like Tolkien, Lewis, and Gaiman. It will help your fantasy grow deeper and richer.

Originally shared by Melissa Walsh

So this has potential.

They’re going to start with a writing contest (like Writers of the Future but without the L. Ron), but their ambitions are a lot bigger than that. Have a read.