Jump to content
RIP - Comicality

Writing World

A group blog by Site Volunteers in Site Blogs

  • entries
    2,433
  • comments
    8,627
  • views
    154,174

Contributors to this blog

About this blog

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 - Skills

Why We Write Flash Fiction

How do you write flash fiction? Well, there’s really only one requirement: Keep it short! How short depends on the game, or prompt, or you… but the difference is you write the story planning to make it as concise as possible without sacrificing the image and scene you’re trying to convey. It’s a challenge to write something that pulls in readers without having a lot of time to do backstory or a long adventure.   So why do people like writing flash fiction? For me, it’s a different kin
Writing Tips - Skills

New Author Advice #3

Hey All! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far. Today we're going to look at a writing tip provided to me by Cole Matthews. Cole has put together a bit of a primer on a way to build character. As he told me, it's something that he's always reminding himself of and he was hoping that by sharing his thoughts that it would help other authors out as well. Thank you, Cole!  If you have any advice that you would like to share with the GA authors, send me a PM!   Builds Character
Writing Tips - Skills

New Author Advice #2

Have you thought about writing your first story, but it seems a little daunting? Don't worry, every new author has been there at one point or another. Thankfully, you're part of a great community that has plenty of authors willing to share their knowledge, and/or what they wished they'd known when they first started. If you're thinking that you've heard that before, it's because you have, but that's the best intro to this feature. Back in December we first introduced the "New Author Advice" feat
Writing Tips - Skills

Grammar Rodeo #10

I hope everyone has had a great month so far. It's been a while since we had a Grammar Rodeo from Cia, but it's back! Thank you, Cia for providing us with another great writing tip!   The Structure of a Sentence   Okay, so maybe this seems intuitive. After all, we all write sentences every day, right? But sometimes the visual we’re trying to get across doesn’t work because of the way the sentence has been written. A lot of the time, this can be chalked up to dangling modifiers. What ar
Writing Tips - Skills

New Author Advice #1

Have you thought about writing your first story, but it seems a little daunting? Don't worry, every new author has been there at one point or another. Thankfully, you're part of a great community that has plenty of authors willing to share their knowledge, and/or what they wished they'd known when they first started. Today we've got both Aditus, who is going to tell how he started out, and Graeme who is going to share a little advice on planning out your story. Hope this helps!   Starting O
Writing Tips - Skills

Re-Feature: Cia's Torturing Me

It's been a while since we took a look at some things that new site authors need to know. Our list of authors continues to grow, and it's never a bad thing to re-visit blog entries that help make their life easier. So you've purchased the author title in the GA Store and you're ready to post your first story. Here's a few things you need to know to make your posting in GA Stories go smoothly and help your story get approved.   Cia’s Torturing Me!   by Cia   If you’re an a
Writing Tips - Skills

Grammar Rodeo #9

It's been a while since we had a Grammar Rodeo from Cia, but this month that feature has returned. Let's see what Cia has to say about.... NUMBERS!   Let’s talk numbers! 01 001 1 100 0... no that’s not what I mean. LOL One of the subtle details that refines writing is how an author addresses numbers. Let’s face it, you can’t write anything at length without running into this issue because our lives are dictated by things like time and money.   Numbers in Fiction   Numbers at the begi
Writing Tips - Skills

Grammar Rodeo #8

Ever wonder what the correct word to use is? Cia has written a blog entry to help show which word should be used in different instances. It's been a while since we had a Grammar Rodeo, but I find these posts to be rather informative and we hope you do too.   Commonly Misused Words   When writing, most authors know there are homophones to watch out for, and we all know the big ones like your/you’re/yore and there/their/they’re. But there are a lot of words that are harder to figure ou
Writing Tips - Skills

Revisit: Cia's Torturing Me

Reminder: Voting for the Secret Santa Story Contest ends TODAY! Don't forget to PM your votes, for your favorite Secret Santa Story, to A.J. before 2:00 PM EST. Now, what do we have for you today. Lately, I've been revisiting some of the old blog posts. The site is growing every day, bringing in more readers and more authors. With the influx in newer authors, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit Cia's blog post on some of the highest occurring mistakes that authors make when posting thei
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #7

The hardest part of self-editing is knowing when you're doing something wrong if you don't actually know you're doing something wrong. You might have an inkling and check a reputable source and figure out how to fix your sentence or story, but, other times, you might think you know what you're doing yet still get it wrong. But sometimes we're taught wrong. I think many older authors will recognize these grammar don't rules that are really grammar do rules!   Grammar Myths We All Know Wrong
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: So You Wanna Be An Author

For a while in the blog, we used to do "Blast from the Past" posts. All of these posts came from the old newsletter. I was struggling to figure out what to post for today, when I thought, why not check out the earlier posts of the revived blog. In looking back, I found the perfect post, and it happens to be the first "Writing Tip" that was posted when Lugh started the blog back up. I hope you find it informative.   If you want to check out the past comments on the original post, you can go c
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Conflict Is Key

Sometimes it's hard to find new content to share in the GA News Blog. Lately, I've been looking back at some of the stuff that has been shared since the Blog started up again and I realized something. We have new authors joining all the time and not everyone wants to search through the News Blog and read the tips that have been shared. With that thought in mind, I decided to look at some of the past tips and bring them back to the forefront. The first one I'm once again featuring is from Libby D
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #6

Who's ready for another Grammar Rodeo? Today's Grammar Rodeo is sorta a Part 2 of last weeks. A big thanks to Cia for providing these for the blog. They are a great learning tool and include some great tips and tricks to help authors remember what is best to use. Hopefully you'll find Grammar Rodeo #6 as informative as I did!   Grammar Rodeo #6   Plural Nouns   Last time we talked about plural verbs… now let’s talk about plural nouns. Remember how there are ‘regular’ forms and ‘irr
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #5

I hope everyone is having a great week so far! As you can see, Cia has provided us with another Grammar Rodeo. Ever been confused by Present Tense Verbs vs. Past Tense Verbs? Cia gives us a guideline to help out with those pesky issues. In addition to Tense Verbs, Cia also helps out a bit with That vs. Who.   Past Tense Verbs While there are a variety of tenses to write in, I think the most common method is to use past tense. So today we’re going to talk about past tense verbs. For the most pa
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #4

This time for the grammar rodeo, I thought I'd keep our subject matter simple and maybe even fun! Yes, yes, I swear, grammar can be fun--at least when you're like me and find a wicked glee in rolling your eyes at the grammar fails around you!! First, though, let's take a look at a technical writing tip that seems simple, but catches up more people than you might think! Grammar Rodeo #4 Getting It Write Err... Right!   Subject and Verb Agreement   No, I don't expect them to sha
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #3

Who's ready for another Grammar Rodeo? This one focuses on Affect vs Effect and Ellipses vs Em Dashes. A thank you to Cia for taking the time to put these together. I hope you find them as informative as I do. Grammar Rodeo #3 Those Pesky Word Choices   Affect vs. Effect This is one of those small things that isn’t always picked out by a spellcheck, but knowing when to use affect vs. effect can be tricky for some people to remember. I have a simple mnemonic clue for authors when
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #2

Who's ready for another Grammar Rodeo? A big thanks to Cia for providing these for the blog. They are a great learning tool and include some great tips and tricks to help authors remember what is best to use. Hopefully you'll find Grammar Rodeo #2 as informative as I did! Grammar Rodeo #2 Those Pesky Word Choices       Past vs. Passed   This one is complicated when you consider the many, many variations of past. Past can be used as an adjective, a noun, a preposition, a
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Grammar Rodeo #1

Today's blog is courtesy of Cia! Ever wondered which is the correct word to use when faced with lay/lie? You're not alone and Cia has put together a very informative blog entry to help, it even includes tips and tricks for when you're really not sure. Thanks Cia for taking the time to give us Grammar Rodeo #1! Grammar Rodeo #1 Tips and Tricks for wrangling those Pesky Word Choices!   Who and Whom Okay, I hate this one, even though it’s relatively simple! Let’s make it easy: Who i
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Constructive Criticism - Part 2

I hope everyone is having a great week so far. Last week we did a post on Constructive Criticism. I received so many great responses, I decided it was better to break it up and do two posts rather than the single one that I originally had planned. Today, we're looking at the final five author's answers to the question: What is constructive criticism? Enjoy!   So there you have it, the final five! Now, I have a question for all of you! Do you have a question you would like to put to all t
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Constructive Criticism - Part I

Many authors welcome criticism, providing it is constructive, but... What is constructive criticism? The definition can vary from person to person, so rather than just one author giving their definition, I thought it would be a good idea to get multiple perspectives. I put the question out to all authors site wide and got eleven great responses. With so many great responses, I've decided to do a part 1 and a part 2. Here's part 1, enjoy!   So there's the first 6, next week you'll get th
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Flash Fiction - Why And How?

I thought, this week, that we’d discuss something we host here on GA, and promote weekly on the blog. Flash fiction, namely in the guise of our prompts. Our anthologies are an extension of that as well. But we’ve never really talked about the art of creating these types of short stories—so today we will! I think there are two main questions most people have: What is flash fiction and why do people write it?   FLASH FICTION   Flash fiction can also run the gamut of ‘regular fiction’.
Cia

Cia in Writing Tips - Skills

29
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Copyright Infringment - Keeping It Legal

Every once in a while I like to take a look through the blog to see what has been used before that could be useful to some of the newer authors here on Gay Authors. Back in October 2012, Sara Alva (known then as KingdombytheSea) shared her experience with using song lyrics in her story Social Skills. Many authors use song lyrics in their stories without ever thinking of the repercussions that they may be facing if/when they decide to publish. I hope that Sara's experience helps some authors here
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tips: Overcoming The Obstacles

I don't think there's really too much that I can say to introduce the topic for today. There's obstacles everywhere we look and today Cia has written up an article that takes a look at some of the most common ones that plague authors. Not only does she name them, but she gives some great tips on how to overcome them. We'd also like to hear some of the obstacles you're faced with when writing and how you overcome them! Overcoming the Obstacles By Cia   Any good writer knows it does
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Crafting A Story

Crafting a Story... More Work than You Might Think! by Cia   There's a lot that goes into writing a story, more than what the average reader would think. After thinking up the story, and writing then it, there comes the many rounds of editing. This is the nuts and bolts process, when you strip something down to its basic components and put it all back together--hopefully without any extra pieces! For me, that involves several reads of the story. Then I ask for help from my tea
Writing Tips - Skills

Writing Tip: Adverbs And Adjectives ~ Helping Or Hurting

Happy Wednesday everyone! I hope everyone is having a great week so far. I was looking through the possible posts that I had for today and I decided that it's been a while since we had a grammar lesson. Wouldn't you know it, I actually had one sitting around, just waiting for an opportunity to be showcased in the blog! So, without further ado, here's today's writing tip, courtesy of Cia. Enjoy! Adverbs and Adjectives ~ Helping or Hurting by Cia   Today I want to focus on wa
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Our Privacy Policy can be found here: Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..