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This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
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This will be a blog for my writing, maybe with (too much) personal thrown in. I am hoping it will be a little more interactive, with me answering questions, helping out and whatnot. It follows on from the old one, which is now full. An index of topics from old and new can be found here: "Writing Blog No.2 Index" Feel free to comment and interact. And to suggest topics! |
| InExternal Writerings June 2026 Yes, sorry, it is that time again for me to please ask very nicely for you to read my alleged work in the external columns! Most of these are simple song lists and a pair of concert shows. A covers band I caught at the pub. Early songs about beauty and beautiful things. More recent songs about beauty and things being beautiful. Songs about sisters. Songs about brothers. And, finally, a show and 2 albums by a wonderful country artist. 6 columns for you to enjoy. Remember, every click from a new IP without an ad-blocker gets me a small amount of money, but it all adds up. Thanks in advance.  |
| Pastiches I have mentioned a few times that there is no copyright on ideas. I mean, that’s what keeps Asylum Pictures in business, after all. However, one thing many beginner writers do is not only take ideas from their favourite writers and twist them, but is write as a pastiche of their favourite writer. I was accused of this very early on in my writing career! And I say accused – it was a very legitimate criticism. Hands up. I tried to imitate Stephen King. A pastiche is when the style of an artist is what is imitated. And by imitated, I mean done in a lesser manner, coming across as a third-rate copy. It is generally used as a disparaging term. It is not always a negative. Sometimes a pastiche is used deliberately. Often, this is in the parody field ("20260415 Parody" ) where pastiche is almost recommended. Sometimes it is used as an homage to a writer (think of the many Cthulhu ethos writers who followed HP Lovecraft). And sometimes it is used as a critique (the film The Meg was a critique of the post-Jaws 2 shark films). And then there is fan-fiction, which often uses pastiche as a stylistic choice (but that is not allowed to be sold, and is writing more for the writer). However, when it comes to young writers, it is 99% not deliberate. The writers they like so much have been their inspiration for writing for themselves, and so it is only logical that their style mirrors that of those who came before. And I will say that, for a beginner, that is not a bad thing. The problem comes when the writing stays in that pastiche area even after many years. I will say that a writer often does need to have this pointed out to them (as it was to me) to realise and then grow as a writer. If it is allowed to go on, then it might become harder for the writer to break the habit. However, if all a writer does is write as a pastiche of the more famous writer, then it certainly feels the writer is not growing or developing their own voice. So, the first thing is the writer needs to have it explained to them that what they are writing is a pastiche. This should not be a form of abuse, but as part of an honest and open critique. Second, the writer needs to be encouraged to read other authors, and especially other genres. This will expand what they are exposed to. Finally, the writer needs to be encouraged and maybe even assisted to develop their own voice. This will not come overnight, but through strong effort to be one’s own writer. A pastiche is a criticism (in my case, valid) that can be an insult, but can also mean a writer is at the beginning phase of their career, and so more experienced writers could step in and help (if the beginner accepts said help). But, and this is important, at least they are writing. |
| Novel #57 The next novel is one that I am particularly happy with. Raven is an 88,000 word novel for young adults, an urban fantasy with hints of horror. I’d been asked for a sequel to Invasive Species ("20260403 Novel #47" ) and I had no idea where to take the story without it being a repeat of the last one. However, that book of Celtic legends I’d used in the past sat in the forefront of my mind and amongst the legends was one about witches who could turn into birds. Well, set in the same part of the world as IS (South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula), I had a character. Now… They were opposed to creatures of flame! A fire demon! Let’s have both be high school students. But neither could be the PoV characters because I don’t know how Celtic witches or fire demons think. So I needed a character to drive the story. And his girlfriend. The ending came to me first. The girlfriend had been the fire demon’s girlfriend, and he’d done something to her, so she had to be there at the end. Some more Celtic mythology thrown in, the power of three, vegetation dolls, spells, magic, and a nice little love story. Perfect for upper teenagers (from, say 15 on in Australia). I was really happy with it, but I needed a beta reader. My daughter (then 16) offered. She is the most vicious beta reader I have ever used! She slammed everything, but also pointed out what worked well (including the ending). Her most common complaint was the Kurt, the MC, was a “dick.” I toned his behaviours back, made him less dick-ish, and clarified a lot of the things she did not get. To give you an idea of how vicious she was, I printed the story out as a book (A5 sized) and every single page had a stick-it note in it! But it worked. She made the book so much better, and I will use her again (and have done so for a novella) because she is honest. Brutally so. It is what I need to go that next step in my writing career. She made a good story into a very good one. And it has been rejected 4 times so far… Excerpt “Oh, God,” I whispered. I ripped off the headset and grabbed my phone, quickly bringing up my contacts and hitting Todd’s name. “Hi, you’ve reached Todd. Leave a message after the beep.” “Todd, call me!” I cried, then leapt to my feet and ran to mum’s room, where she was reading something on her Kindle. “What’s up?” she asked. “Something’s happened to Todd,” I babbled. “There was a strange sound and he went off-line and I can’t get through to him and—” “Kurt, slow down,” mum stated. “Take a breath.” I inhaled deeply through my nose and let it out through my mouth. “Can I borrow the car and go check on Todd? Please?” I asked. “That’s better.” She glared at me from over the top of her glasses. “Is this on the level?” “Mum, you should have heard it. He said his computer was over-heating and—” “Okay,” she interrupted, holding her hand up. “Have you tried calling his grandmother?” I started, then pulled my phone out of my pocket and found Grandma Zarian’s number. This time there was no personalised message, just the default computer voice. “Hi, this is Kurt O’Toole. Is everything all right? Call me, please,” I managed. “No answer, huh?” I shook my head. “Okay.” She continued to stare at me. “Want me to drive? You’re pretty emotional.” “I’ll be fine,” I replied, the pounding of my heart almost painful in my chest. “Call me as soon as you know anything, good, bad or indifferent,” she stated. “Thanks, mum.” I started out off the room. “And, Kurt?” I faced her. “Please be careful.” So this is another story that I think has legs, but, yet again, I am probably the only one who does. Maybe I’ll get lucky one day… |
| Historical Research I recently read reviews of a book that I found mediocre – not terrible, but not great; however, I did read the whole thing, so it passed my 50 page rule – wondering if I was being overly harsh. Apparently not, as the three other reviews hated the book. They were much harsher than me. Two hated it for the same thing – the historical inaccuracies. I knew they were there, as it was part of my issue (my biggest issue was the nearly-OP abilities and knowledge of the MC, which really angered the other/third reviewer as well), but these two reviewers really went to town on history. The story, by the way, was set in 1850s New York City. One of the reviewers said, “It is not that hard to do your historical research to make these things make sense and still add color to your book.” Well, is it hard? Yeah, it’s not. Now, we were all ARC readers, and that’s how we got to see one another’s reviews, none of which have gone live, but the writer claimed she did do her research, and blamed Wikipedia and AI for leading her astray. I believe the book is now being re-edited. That is by the by… but it does add context. This is not another diatribe against AI because this has been happening since the Internet became ubiquitous, and even when the misinformation age started, back in the mid-1990s. Long before AI said Hitler did nothing wrong (oh, yes, thanks Gemini!), the Internet’s misinformation was bleeding into non-fiction books. Those who have read me long enough know I have encountered this while researching my monster dictionary. I repeat, this is NOT an AI issue – this is an Internet issue… or maybe an older issue with hiding history. The 1980s. Great music, decent-ish films, crap politics. So, with that in mind, there are some places to go to get a good feel for the history of a place. First, history textbooks from pre-1980. They are generally not used in schools, but can be found in second-hand bookshops. I know, because a friend in Florida found one for me and sent it to me (at great expense; book cost 50c and postage cost $20, and because it was going to Australia, there were other issues; apparently Australia is now an enemy of the USA). All because I wanted a better idea of the US Great Depression… I digress. Why do I say pre-1980? Why rag on the 1980s? This s going to sound weird, but it was in the 1980s that special interest groups started to change history education across the Western world. It is not as bad as we see it nowadays, but it started there, and so mentions of certain groups, certain terms, certain events started to be excised or ‘clean-washed’. While that does mean minority groups are not offended, it can mean that certain elements of history became hidden or almost deleted. Then there are newspapers. Newspapers from the time. And this is where the Internet can really help. Instead of going to a library and hoping they have papers from certain eras and years, there are online collections that are so easy to go through. What this does is it gives an idea of not only the big stories of the day, but also what was around through adverts, attitudes through the way things were reported, and the way local communities reacted and responded to the wider world. (hint: generally they didn’t care). Where to find these repositories of goodness? Australia: Trove :https://trove.nla.gov.au/ Up to 1966. There is a 60-year rule here. That means only papers older than 60 years can be uploaded. USA: Chronicling America: https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/about-this-collection/ Up to 1963. I believe there is also a 60-year rule, but funding shortfalls have seen it fall behind schedule. Australia and the USA have these things in one place, they are free, and (government funding permitting) are being added to all the time. The UK’s newspaper archives are hidden behind expensive paywalls. You might find some through National Archives, but good luck. Britain is embarrassed by its past. Canada’s archives are not in one easy to find place, and they have a habit of censoring things that modern people might find objectionable (which is stupid). The main one I use is Canadiana: https://www.canadiana.ca/ , especially Héritage: https://heritage.canadiana.ca/ . I believe some European countries have similar places as the USA/Australia; Mexico and South American countries do not. I do not know about Asian or African countries. Next is to read the fiction works from the era, especially in Georgian and later times. This will give you an idea of language used and attitudes because fiction was a great way to couch these things. For example, if you can find an uncensored version of Twain’s Tom Sawyer, there is so much of historical interest to be learnt there. The final place I would look is autobiographies of people at the time. NOT biographies, but the books written by the people themselves. Yes, you are going to get biases and exaggerations and self-aggrandisements, but what you will see is the world as it was. And, yes, most were written by the rich and powerful and successful, but that still gives a feel for the time. A lot of these books are available for free through Project Gutenberg (a repository of out of copyright works, fiction and non-fiction): https://www.gutenberg.org/ . Historical research, if you are serious, has become complicated in some ways, but has been made easier in others. Give it a go; your books will be the better for it. |
| Writing Prompts: Full List! As promised, here is the full list of all 100 writing prompts! 1. "There's a goat in the kitchen!" 2. 12:46am 3. Summer rain 4. Money in an odd place 5. Last year 6. What's cooking? 7. A person gets a phone call from someone they haven't heard from in 10 years 8. "I hurt myself." 9. Scissors cutting 10. 11. A person is in the path of a tornado/ hurricane/ cyclone/ whirlwind/ willi-willi 12. Your cat gets the power of speech 13. Use all the words: desert, close, wind, lead, concert 14. Giraffe 15. Change one thing about your school days 16. December 26 17. "Uhh, why is your skin aquamarine?" 18. New hairstyle 19. Queen Elizabeth II 20. A person steals an item from a museum 21. A love scene… in the style of a children's picture book/ Dr Seuss 22. A dog/ cat lays an egg 23. A high school drop out catches up with his best friend from school after graduation 24. How would you change a TV show? 25. A rose bush grows in a bedroom 26. A person's first time on stage in front of a crowd 27. Confronting a fear 28. "Aloysius, is that you?" / "No, you've got the wrong person." 29. Swimming in molasses/ custard/ jelly 30. A new t-shirt 31. If hamsters/ guinea pigs/ gerbils used bows and arrows 32. The joke backfires! 33. Electric eel 34. A rude customer gets their comeuppance 35. Hearing a song you haven't heard in years 36. An unseasonal heatwave strikes 37. An undertaker goes on holiday 38. A person finds themselves a character in a TV show they hate 39. "Who are you and what are you doing in my kitchen?" 40. Pitch a classic book (play) to a modern audience 41. Use all the words: bow, cap, hip, rub, sky 42. What happens after the movie/ book/ TV show has ended? 43. Gold medal 44. Give advice to a famous person 45. A snake in the bed 46. A couple have an argument… in the style of an instruction manual 47. Setting: a desert; Time: night 48. Write a review of a public building 49. 50. A person has a meal ready but can't eat it 51. Fictionalise something that happened to you in the past 52. "Fire!" 53. 20 points 54. You find a set of keys and have no idea what they are for 55. A premonition 56. Oliver David McIntie Jr - why is he famous? 57. Orange 58. A person finds a new brand of delicious food 59. Someone picks "dare" instead of "truth" - what secret are they hiding? 60. Opening line: "It was all a dream." 61. A normal day degenerates into a scene of complete and utter chaos but only one person notices 62. 63. 67 64. You are a ghost about to be exorcised… what next? 65. You find a magic sword/ light saber at work/ school 66. Winter comes early 67. Lawnmower 68. "Did that piece of toast just move?" 69. Write blog posts/ Facebook updates/ social media posts as if by a famous fictional character 70. Soap in the eyes 71. A person sees an electric iron being used for an odd purpose 72. Decorating the cat 73. A man walks from the bus to his home… in the style of a movie review 74. Confusion 75. What does SROPF mean? 76. Pair up two characters from different stories 77. You are the therapist/ counsellor to a famous monster 78. London 79. The latest superhero is… 80. $100 81. "It was the best day of my life." 82. Lizards on bikes 83. A person fails at something they have done many times in the past successfully 84. "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon 85. Heart 86. Use all the words: brown, bin, brick, bore, blank 87. Radio 88. The culprit is the most unexpected person 89. A potion 90. Full moon 91. Deep fried Mars Bars! 92. "How about a quick game of…" 93. President (Prime Minister) Mickey Mouse/ President (Prime Minister) Bugs Bunny 94. 95. Pineapple on pizza 96. Inappropriate fortune cookies 97. A person gets their newspaper (opens their news app) and finds their photo by the lead story 98. The top 10… 99. That's a weird phobia 100. "What on Earth is that smell?" Hope something here clicked a writing muscle! |
| Mixing Genres Are we allowed to mix genres? Question my son found on Facebook (he looks for publishing stuff for me) My first instinct was to ignore it because it feels like a question with an obvious answer. But that’s because I am living in the writering bubble, so it might not seem logical to a beginner writer who only sees the genres at the book-store, library, or Amazon listings. The answer is simple: Yes. The most obvious is the new “genre” of Romantasy, where romance and fantasy are mixed. Go back to the early 2000s and Western + Science-fiction mash-ups were everywhere (although it could well be said Star Wars was one of those, but only in stylistic terms…). Humour and nearly every other genre have all been mixed. Outland (1981) was science-fiction and mystery combined. Alien (1979) was horror and science fiction, as was the original The Terminator (1984). Mixing genres has been done for decades. However, there are a few things to remember if mixing genres like this. The first is practical – publishers are wary of doing it. It needs to really be good for a traditional publisher to take a risk. Or, as in most of the original Romantasy titles, be self-published first and have an audience that has proven its sellability. Very, very few mash-ups of genre start life with a medium-sized or larger publisher! The second is that both genres need to be treated as equals. Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy had a good mix of science fiction and humour. Take the scifi out and it just as genuinely funny. Rewrite the exact story without the humour and it was about a man whose planet was destroyed by aliens trying to find his way in the universe. Both aspects were given the same importance. On the other hand, in Lightlark, the fantasy is shunted so far to the back behind the romance aspect that the rules of the world change, sometimes from one paragraph to the next. Take the romance out and it fails; get rid of the fantasy and it is a simple love triangle amongst powerful people. One genre was given precedence. Third is that the tropes and ideas of both genres need to be combined well. Not romance scene, fantasy scene, romance scene, fantasy scene. Each important or driving scene needs to have aspects of both genres. One genre cannot be a subplot. They are supposed to be meshed together and both flow with the other. Look at Alien – they are on a spaceship, no escape, no way out, with technology and computers… and a horrible alien monster stalking them and killing them one by one, using the darkness and isolation to its advantage. You need both for the story to work, and they are there together throughout the tale. This does mean that, as a writer, you do need to read in both genres to see what works and what does not. But, yes, mixing genres is fine. And have fun; try something rarely done. You never know – you might start a new trend! |
| Novel #56 So we come to one of the worst novels I have written this century – When Destiny Beckons. At 90k words, I started with the ending (which ended up being almost the ending) and the two characters and the extra-dimensional temple. How to combine them all? They were destined to time and time again meet up and combat a demon. There is a priest involved, a lot of death, and pestilence is the demon’s weapon. It is a standard tale. I like the male character: I think I have him down well, although he is a little too depressed. The female MC is too clichéd for what I wanted. The priest is too good to be true. The otherworldly being is too deus ex machine. The demon’s human helper is two-dimensional. The situation is too low stakes. The final scene between the two MCs is too vague. The ending is too predictable. I think there was a lot of potential here, but for some reason it just became bog-standard and not that good. Excerpt 5. Alyssa slowly peeled back the bandage and started. There was a little blood there on the gauze, but what stood out was the four little loops of dark string. Her stitches had come out? Had she done that itching them? Did that mean she had to go back to the doctor? She stood carefully and walked to the mirror and examined the wound. No more than a pink line was there. The skin was unbroken and the only blood was dried blood from where they had not done a good job of cleaning her up, for fear of causing her more pain. Okay, new question: How in the hell had this healed so fast? Because there could be no doubting that the injury was now no more than a scar. There was no opening in the skin, nothing to indicate she had been stabbed, nothing that should have seen her spend the night in a hospital. She should go and see the doctor, she knew, but didn’t want to answer any questions about it. There was no denying the attack had happened and there had been a wound there, but there was also no denying that it was gone. Three nights had passed, and that was all. This morning, while reading the paper in the park, it had itched, but that was the only thing today that had even reminded her she had been injured. This was insane. She needed to tell some-one. That is a not very good story. A couple more are also not brilliant, but this is definitely the worst since the year 2000. But I have to be honest with everyone, including myself. |
| Subplots A subplot is a secondary story running adjacent to the main plot and story. They are not used in short stories, but it is recommended that a subplot is used in longer works to make the readers more invested in the world. Most subplots tend to be minor, and (so it seems to me) based around a romance between characters. But in some cases, a subplot is actually a major part of the narrative. Think Lord Of The Rings. The main plot is destroying the ring. The subplot is the battle between Orcs and the rest of Middle Earth. That is a major part of the trilogy! So, what makes a good subplot? Well, a good subplot contributes to the denouement of the story in some way. Even a romance subplot means the MC is in a couple now, and the stakes are raised. This does mean a bad subplot contributes nothing to the outcome of the story. Not a scene where nothing happens – the visit to the casino planet in The Last Jedi is a scene showing that things don’t always go the hero’s way – but a driving subplot throughout the tale. A good subplot is what happens to Lydia Bennet in Pride And Prejudice as her elopement works as a juxtaposition to the more cautious and slow burning relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. A bad subplot could be the wife of Walt in Breaking Bad being a kleptomaniac in the first couple of seasons. It does not mean a single thing to what happens, and didn’t even lead to tension with police. A good subplot could also see a change in character or show a character’s true character. In The Hunger Games, Katniss and Rue have a friendship that serves as a subplot to show that Katniss is not the ruthless hunter/ survivor, but that she cares, moreso when Rue is killed. It helps the reader get on board with Katniss as a character, and is a great example of this type of subplot. So… if that’s good, what about bad? Bad subplots do one (or more) of these things: 1) have nothing to do with the ending, and is essentially pointless; 2) are just there for a potential sequel; 3) it does nothing to help the reader know the protagonist or see them grow as a person, and/or 4) it takes up too much space in the narrative at the expense of the main plot. Talking about bad subplots, one commonly used subplot is the comedic subplot, but often it is tonally too jarring, and sometimes the comedy can serve to undermine an otherwise tense or serious situation. The robot in Treasure Planet is a good example of this being done badly. Scrat in Ice Age, the sabre-toothed squirrel with his nut, is an example of this done well. One thing that a writer needs to be wary of is the subplot taking over. In written works, this does not tend to happen in stand-alone books, as a good beta reader and/or editor will undoubtedly suggest that the subplot and driving plot be swapped over. Simple. But in a long-term series, it can happen. I can’t think of a book example, but the one cited most often is the TV show Family Matters. A story about a family struggling was derailed by a character meant to have a 3-episode arc – the new next door neighbour Steve Urkel. By Season 3, the whole show was based around Urkel. That subplot took over. (For better or worse is your call, but I never like the show either way.) Maybe the Twilight series is also this. What started off as a paranormal romance love triangle tale became something involving ancient vampire families, mainly because the love triangle had sorted itself out long before the series ended. Plotters can easily include the subplots into their planning of a tale, and this is one of the main advantages of being a plotter – the subplots make sense and are slotted in organically. We pantsers have to be wary of how much our subplots intrude and overtake, and often in my case, it is the second draft where subplots are clarified. Or third draft. Or after a beta reader has asked me what the hell I was thinking… Yes, subplots can bring a work and characters to life, and should not be avoided in longer works. In fact, I would encourage them to help bring your long-form writing to life. Just do them well is all I suggest. |
| Differentiating Speakers Quick one. I mentioned in a review that the dialogue was hard to discern one person from another, and the writer asked how to change that. Perfectly legitimate question. There are three obvious ways to do it. 1) One or more people have distinct verbal tics. Using “yeah” a lot, or “umm” or calling people a distinct term (“bro”). 2) A person talks in shorter sentences than others, or uses longer words, or uses a lot of words. 3) This is harder, but the tone of voice differentiates characters. There are more subtle ways of doing it. 1) A person repeats something before saying their own thing. 2) A person uses certain words incorrectly. (Careful – reviewers will think the writer used the words wrong!) 3) A person has their own nicknames for people or things. 4) A person uses work jargon in non-work situations. 5) Quote certain movies/ TV shows (be wary of copyright). 6) Occasionally be “off with the fairies” and have to be jolted back to reality. 7) Can’t maintain eye contact when talking. …and so on… It is important that characters are not just ciphers, that they feel like real people. But beyond that, they should also feel different from one another. And the way they talk can be one of the best ways to get these characters separated. |
| How Powerful? When developing protagonists, it is important to consider the powers they are given, especially in a fantasy or science-fiction setting. Yes, this is me complaining about characters again. There are two sorts of characters here – the OP character (over-powered) and the Under-dog. Guess which one readers relate to more… The problem with an OP character is that if nothing is a struggle and they face all adversaries and roadblocks with a blasé attitude because they can do it all, then what stakes are there? They need a weakness. There was a reason why Kryptonite and clones were brought into the Superman canon! But, I hear you say, surely no-one in their right mind would write an OP character. “In their right mind” is the phrase here. Take Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline. The first book was not good at all, but in the second Wade is so over-powered the only thing that could derail him is his laziness. And, of course, he succeeds. No fight was ever difficult. He even takes things as though they mean nothing, and in his OPness, they make no sense whatsoever (defeating a tarrasque in D&D is one of the worst). Mind you, the book is truly awful and if you have no idea about Prince or John Hughes films, then you will be 100% completely lost. Then we have the comics. It seems every 5 years a new super-hero comes along who is more powerful than all before. The X-Men were especially egregious in this regard. Even Superman had to be killed by Doomsday… but it’s okay – he got better. It creates a universe where death means nothing. These characters need to be put in situations where they are out of their comfort zone, where their powers mean nothing. It is why Batman is one of the most popular (if not the most popular… and as I write this, his comics are the number one sellers) super-hero. He’s a rich guy who is really intelligent and dresses up as a bat (he is essentially Sherlock Holmes in a Halloween costume) and beats the bejeesus out of bad guys. No super-powers, no magic, no guardian angels – just a man. And he gets hurt a lot in the comics. He needs to use his smarts to get out of trouble that Superman would just punch his way out of, the Flash would go really fast to get away from, Wonder Woman would be acrobatic and god-like and stuff… you know the drill. Readers engage with the under-dog character who is pushed to the very end of their tether and only comes through by the skin of their teeth. If written well, we are with them all the way. They are under-matched and our sympathy is with them. The character needs to be resourceful and this can lead to the change in the character that so many writing courses insist on. But don’t rely on that deus ex machina – it needs to come from the character and what they know and/or learn. But these OP characters who master every magic spell by age 5, can use a sword like a 20-year veteran at age six and has the martial arts skills of seven Bruce Lees by age ten… who gives a shit? |
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