So, I was recently reading this very excellent post/lecture/essay by Brandon Sanderson about the innovations Tolkien made creating the genre of High Fantasy, when, near the end, he mentions an interaction he had once with the mother of one of his fans. Just after he had signed the daughter’s book, the mother stopped and asked him something like, ‘Not to be rude, but how do I get her to stop reading all of this fantasy drivel?’. Sanderson then goes on…
Once again, I’d like to explore a little more of the idea that encountering an example of bad writing by someone else can actually provide an excellent opportunity to improve your own writing. (My previous discussion about this is here.) As a writer, it’s always important to read plenty, both for enjoyment (of course!) and to have a lot of examples to draw from of what sort of writing is to your taste. But when you come across something that…
So…I would like to sometimes write posts about art that I think is super awesome, because there are so many super-awesome things, and we should shout about them when we think of them so that more people can know about these awesome things! Unfortunately, this will not be one of those posts (though I will try to balance things out a little with some shout-outs). This post, unfortunately, is going to be more plaintive. Why don’t I love steampunk? Really. …