Karsten

Great post. :)

Another option is to just use the front door - come up with disguises and/or legitimate reasons to enter the castle. Terry Pratchett's characters in Monstrous Regiment dressed up as ...

Hi Pen, First of all, there are no universal rules of writing - everyone does it differently. So be prepared for conflicting advice. The way I see it, improving as ...

That's just a remark on the "effectiveness" of your anti-gun laws. I don't think so. I feel perfectly safe knowing that absolutely nobody bar some police officers and the most ...

Guns and the knowledge of them are not scary things. A gun is a simple tool. Proper usage of a tool does not a frightening person make. Improper usage of ...

Anyone else frightened by Conrad's encyclopaedic knowledge of sniping? :P

Give him real flaws that have real consequences in the story, not meaningless non-flaws like being bad at drawing.

Not a gun person, but my friend's gun-nut ex told her that a Ruger mini 14 (a military-issue assault rifle) is a good rifle for an assassin - good at ...

Write. There is no substitute for writing. Nobody else can put the words on paper for you. Pull the plug on the internet and don't put it back in until ...

My personal suspicion is that a telepath would mainly pick up people's bizarre sexual fantasies. People spend a lot of time thinking about sex. I would not want to be ...

You might find it helpful to read this article about pitfalls in romances . It's specifically about romantic comedy films, but I'd apply it to any romance. The article identifies ...

Sounds like meandering isn't working well for you. I'd suggest you try an outline, see if that helps. I prefer to use pretty detailed outlines - I'm four novels to ...

As for revelation... there's a car crash, not involving the main character. She is walking along, sees this, when she sees vamp-boy tear open the door, and drag this horribly ...

Thanks very much for your helpful response, Peter. I hope my questions didn't come across as accusatory - I know that vanity publishers like to prey on young, inexperienced writers ...

Hi itsabook, This sounds very intriguing, and I'm sure many of our young writers would love a publication credit if it's with a reputable publisher. Since you're posting anonymously and ...