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Writing World

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Featuring everything new and experienced authors need to develop creative and technical skills. Check out writing development articles, our Word of the Day, writing prompts, anthology opportunities and more!

Entries in this blog

Writing Tips

Trailblazing

Trailblazing I think, as a creator, we all want to appreciate the honor and prestige that comes with the idea that we were able to tell a story that is truly unique, original, and just completely out of the blue...blowing your audience away in the process. It’s a lofty and ambitious goal to reach for...but it’s a high branch on the tree, believe me. So reach for it, but don’t be discouraged if you create something awesome while still falling a bit short. That begs the question...is it e
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Story Parallels

Story Parallels If ‘this’…then ‘that’. When I’m writing or even creating a new idea for a new story in my head...that’s always a part of the process. Always. Not only from beginning to end, but involving the characters that exist within the plot and the world that I ultimately built, just for them. There is just something that gives the story a very personal level of depth for me, and it’s become a permanent style when it comes to my writing in general. Everything has a cause and an eff
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Immersion

Immersion Something that I think about, mostly for science fiction or other genres of fiction outside of my normal fanfare, is finding out how to really pull my readers into this new world that I’ve built, often from scratch, and find a way to truly keep them immersed in it from beginning to end without having it feel like some sort of ‘trick’ or an illusion. You know how you have those really weird dreams that you don’t really recognize as dreams until you wake up, and you think, “What the
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Beneath The Surface

Beneath The Surface There are many different ways to tell a story. And these are all stories that mean something to us (I’m assuming) on some deeper level that anything that most readers are able to pick up on right away. Even when the idea seems to be really obvious on the surface...there may be a lot of deeper meanings underneath it. And that can truly affect your readers in a fundamentally powerful way...even if only on a subconscious level. And that can end up being a very influential we
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Geek Chic

Geek Chic Now, I have to tell you all...I have always had a real soft spot in my heart for a boy who is a little bit of a geek. Hehehe, always have, always will. I mean, I love intelligence, I love a shy guy, and I love to laugh...so that’s like hitting the jackpot to me. They can just be soooo sweet sometimes, and I think they can be extremely fun to write as well. So have some mercy on me. I think that one of the elements of ‘geek chic’ that has always stood out to me is the fact that
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David and Goliath

David And Goliath A few weeks back, I briefly mentioned the difference between being more brazen and direct with the content of your stories, and the subtle grace of tenderly sliding it past your audience...along with developing the natural instincts to know which is which. Well, here we are now. This time around we’ll be talking about when it’s best to just be straightforward and bluntly say what you need to say, and when that’s the best plan of action for certain parts of your fiction, whe
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The Switch Up

The Switch Up While I definitely have a great deal of fun writing short, one time, stories whenever I can, and they’ll always have a very special place in my heart...I think I still prefer to write stories that are a little bit longer even more. I like having the room to breathe, you know? To explore my own characters and develop them a bit more so they end up becoming a bit more three-dimensional in my mind, and they’re a lot easier to work with once I get a chance to know them a little bit
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Vocabulary

Vocabulary I think that a truly important part of being a good and effective writer comes from having a decent and flowing vocabulary at your disposal for all occasions. Now, I have mentioned this briefly before in other articles before, but I never really went into depth about what this means and how to develop and expand it in ways that will be useful to you in some way. You see, what you want is to allow your word usage to grow and change and evolve over time...all while still sounding na
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Time Jumps

Time Jumps I think if I had a time machine, and went back about ten to fifteen years to meet my older self, I kind of wonder whether either one of us would really recognize one another at all. It’s a weird idea, but I don’t think we would. I certainly don’t think we’d get along. LOL! That was still the undeniable ‘work in progress’ part of me, and me now? I probably wouldn’t come off as being much fun at all. That would be crazy. The thing is, I know that a LOT has happened in my life s
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The Pick Up Game

The Pick Up Game Soooo...I have to admit to being truly intimidated by a project that I’ve been working on for almost two years now...but if I don’t just dive in head first and friggin’ DO it...then I’ll never get it done. I’m well aware of the fact that I have been, and always will be, my own worst critic. There’s no side stepping that. it’s just a part of who I am. And while it can scare me out of posting and letting people see what I’ve written on most occasions...it can also be cons
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Art Official

Art Official There has been a great deal of talk about the idea of artificial intelligence becoming so much more advance these days, that it may be able to create and weave stories all on its own without really having any real need for authors or artists or models or photographers, etc, at all. And I will admit, I’ve seen some passages ‘written’ by computers that have been fed enough information and influences that it can look pretty convincing to anyone who isn’t experienced with reading in
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Sadly Never After

Sadly Never After It’s a blessing to be a true optimist at heart when it comes to love sometimes. A real romantic. A weaver of good fortune. And since you’re actively creating your own fiction now, you can pretty much have the future of your own beloved main characters tailor made to be the bright, awesome, world that you always wanted it to be. One full of happiness and joy and guaranteed triumph over wickedness and pain. At long last, life as a whole can be all glitter and rainbows the way
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Author Experience

Author Experience There are many different talents and unique gifts that go into being a really great writer, and you have to eventually learn how to master them all over time. That pretty much goes without saying. You have to be able to create compelling characters, write engaging dialogue, have an understanding of plot points and strategy, add details, pay attention to themes and tone, build reader empathy so you can get your audience to invest the time and energy that it takes to make you
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Against The Grain

Against The Grain You know...as you get a bit older...you begin to see a bunch of ‘re-runs’ in the world. Or, at least in the world that the mysterious ‘they’ want to present to you. Hehehe, I’ve never understood the fascination, to be honest...trying to control public perception when reality is just….ummm...reality. It just seems so utterly exhausting to me. It’s like going through all of the trouble of kidnapping somebody, chaining them up in a basement with no windows, and soundproofing t
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Sexual Intimidation

Sexual Intimidation I do realize that there are those of you who simply love to write great stories, and whether they be with gay characters or not, they may not be overly erotic in nature. Even if it’s a romance. And that’s awesome! Keep going, and build your story up to be whatever you want it to be. I admire that and definitely enjoy a good romance myself from time to time without a bunch of naughty bits thrown in when they’re clearly not necessary for the story to work. I grew up on swee
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See It

See It It can be a really difficult concept to grasp for a vast majority of people, you know? Especially those who don't find themselves driven by a certain creative passion. I mean, I used to think..."Well, yeah. Of course there are going to be a few people who don't understand the idea behind it, and there's no way for me to effectively explain it to them in a way where they can truly absorb the concept in the same way that I can." But after years and years of looking for kindred spir
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Wreckage and Redemption

Wreckage/Redemption I, honestly, can’t help but to love a story about character redemption! We all do to some degree, don’t we? There’s just something about it that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Considering that we all have fears and insecurities, flaws and weaknesses...it’s extremely easy to relate and empathize with characters who find that special moment in time when they’re able to overcome the odds and find the courage to grow and evolve and navigate their way beyond what’s b
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How To Ruin A Series

How To Ruin A Series Let’s say that you have yourself an amazing series online that you’ve been writing for an extended period of time now, and you can’t help but to have a blast working on it. You get excited sitting down at your keyboard with your juice or your coffee or your ‘miscellaneous’ cocktail of choice, and you’re ready to dive back into that world and continue the adventures of your readers’ favorite characters, ummm...’Slappy’ and ‘Hammy’! Hehehe! How can you go wrong? It’s
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Jekyll And Hyde

Jekyll And Hyde Something that can really stand out in a story while you’re reading it...and not in a good way...is the flip flopping nature of the characters that are supposed to be carrying the whole project on their shoulders and moving things forward. You see...there’s a point when the characters use the story to grow and evolve, and times when the story uses the characters to grow and evolve. The problem comes from writers who don’t keep it in mind that these two motivations have to be
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Rough Drafts

Rough Draft When I first began writing stories for Nifty, my very first gay themed stories ever, everything that you see in the Nifty Archive are all first drafts. For the first two or three years, in fact. I didn’t have a whole lot of space, didn’t have a lot of privacy, and I didn’t have a lot of time. Plus, I was working out how to write and format using HTML code for the very first time, and even though I had a pretty good idea how to structure and put a story together...to say that I ha
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Period Pieces

Period Pieces I don’t think it was until I began to really play around with the many spinoffs surrounding the “Gone From Daylight” vampire mythology (https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/world/gone-from-daylight/) that I found a true love for the challenge in writing stories that don’t all take place in the current day. It’s something that I think every author should probably try, at least once or twice, just to get a feel for the skill behind it and see if they like the idea or not. Ther
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Present The Problem

Present The Problem I’ve often felt that the key to drama and anxiety for a lot of people who may be reading your stories, or just from life in general came from something very simple. And that’s the constant idea of ‘choice’. Better yet, a dilemma. The more that I played around with the idea of it all in my own fiction, the more enamored I became by the power of it all. You can use it to put pressure on your audience, and create a much more stressful situation out of a fictional that may se
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The Neverending Story

The Neverending Story Last Summer (In late June, early July)...I lost one of the best friends that I’ve ever had before in my life. We had known each other since the fist grade, and shared a life of late nights, movies, video games, and laughing until we fell over holding our stomachs with tears in our eyes. He was the kind of friend that you only make or twice in a lifetime...and one day, he was just...’gone’. Went to bed, heart failure in his sleep, and that was that. A huge part of me was
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Wordy

Wordy Whooo….now here’s a challenge that I can wrap my head around. How to write an article about being ‘too wordy’...without, in fact, being ‘too wordy’. Hehehe, wish me luck with this one, people! ::Fingers Crossed:: One repeated bit of constructive criticism that I often get when it comes to my writing has been pretty consistent. And that is...I am too wordy in all of my stories. And it’s the truth. I definitely have to concede defeat when it comes to trying to defend that despe
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Catharsis

Catharsis Every now and then, I like to ask my fellow writing colleagues on this website or in my emails this question, because it really does vary from person to person, from age to age, and from culture to culture. And sometimes, depending what era of time we happen to be living in can make a huge difference. Emails and online forums have given way to text messages and social media, hot encounters of fictional sex and shallow beauty has given way to extended and meaningful storytelling and
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