Helpful
Pointers for Community Members
Jim
Mills,
Associate Editor,
Forward Motion Community
©2001, Jim Mills
Issue # 2: 03/01/01
Visualization
For Writers
Creating
and Using Language in Fiction
By Damon M. Lord
A,
B, C: Beith, Luis, Nin
By Bryn Neuenschwander
Genetics
in Storytelling
By Allison Starkweather
Creating
Character Extras to Enhance Your Story
By Shane P. Carr
At
a Loss for Words
By Vicki McElfresh
The
Alternative Rules
By Lazette Gifford
Fantasy:
A
Man in Beast's Clothing
By Sarah Jane Elliott
Horror:
What
Is Horror?
By Teresa Hopper
Poetry:
How-to
Haiku
By Jennifer St. Clair Bush
Romance:
Research
Flaws in Romance Novels
By Anne M. Marble
Science Fiction:
Tuning
the Universe
By Bob Billing
Stage & Screen:
The
Dual Landscape of Plot and Story
By Robin Catesby
Suspense & Mystery:
Scene
of the Crime
By Shane P. Carr
Young Adult & Children:
A
Question of Style
By Justin Stanchfield
Young Writer's Scene:
Befriending
the Internal Editor
By Beth Adele Long
Book Reviews
The
Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Reviewed by Beth Adele Long
Web Site Reviews
The
Forward Motion Web Site
By Lazette Gifford
Helpful
Pointers for Community Members
By Jim Mills
From the Writers' Board
News from Forward Motion
Here
are a few links that will help community members, both old and new!
The
Community Gateway URL is: http://hollylisle.com/community/gate.html
You
can also get there from the Community URL: http://hollylisle.com/community/
Under
the community gateway there are links to the following, among others:
-
Privacy
-
Community Rules
-
Finding or Making the Group That's Right for You
-
Where Do We Talk About Writing and Other Stuff
-
Critiquing Basics
-
Ongoing Projects
-
Ongoing Workshops and Exercises
Of
particular interest are the community
rules. Holly has spent a lot of time
and effort producing this information for writers and posting it on the
site. It's all helpful material that you should check out, and keep
in mind when cruising the site or working on your writing.
A
couple of things to keep in mind:
Always
be courteous to your fellow writers, your agent, your editor, everyone.
Even if you think the person on the other end
email or board posting is a flaming idiot, don't say so.
Be nice, be constructive (tell him/her that "this way has
worked well for me, and it might work well for you, too...") and be
positive. The agent or editor
you treat with respect will feel the same towards you.
We
have a number of younger writers on the boards.
Please keep this in mind when posting messages, and try to promote
good behavior that doesn't get anyone in trouble.
In particular, please think twice before posting a message about,
or chatting about subjects, that might get us all in trouble should
someone complain to Network 54 (i.e.: drugs, crime, sex, etc.).
I don't mean that these things cannot be discussed, but please keep
them in-context as a subject for use in your writing (or the other
community members) and be careful not to sound like you're actively
promoting such things in real life. (LOL!
Heaven forbid anyone sound like they're promoting sex in real
life!)
An
ounce of common sense will allow us to keep our happy home.
What's
New?
The
Writer's Board is
always hopping, and bears checking out on a regular basis.
Some of the recent discussions include:
-
Alien Anatomy and Biology
-
Can anyone give me tips on sword fighting scenes?
-
Curing a lack of enthusiasm
-
Gender problems (handling characters that can and do switch genders, etc.)
-
Prologues and Epilogues
-
Using foreign languages
There
are more threads than what appear on the first page.
Be sure to click on "Next" at the bottom of the page --
there are dozens of pages to this board, with the newest first, and you
have to scroll to the following pages to see the older stuff.
Enjoy!
The
History in Fiction
board has a number of interesting threads going.
Here are a few of them:
-
Does anyone know anything about Sumerian Gods? (with lots of references in the follow-ups)
-
How do you stop World War I?
-
Mythical beings
-
Timelines and Histories of various writers' worlds
The
World Building board
has some helpful information, including:
-
Deserts
-
How NOT to Worldbuild
-
Magic
-
Magic System Offered Up to the Gaping Hole Gods
-
Maps, etc.
-
Names for animals
-
Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, and phases of the Moon
-
Wordmaker
-
Yes, You ARE God...
The
Workshops and Exercises
board has a writing-exercise-of-the-day each and every day... the
exercises and what writers have written for them are always worth
investigating (got tired of seeing "check it out" everywhere) .
There
are lots of other interesting boards and postings on Holly's site.
Be sure to check them all out!
-- Jim Mills (Jim@HollyLisle.com )
