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Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of…

Hopefully you’ll be able to learn in one quick shot the difference between the words fazed and phased. Fazed is a verb meaning to disturb or to cause one to feel disconcerted: Charlie was not fazed by his girlfriend’s temper-tantrum. Phased is to carry out a plan in gradual steps: The new computer system will be phased in over the next several months.…

Among the most important words in your story are the ones that begin it. Those words should get the reader to ask, “What’s going on here?” so he keeps reading. In a short story, the author usually only has a couple of sentences to make this happen; in a novel, a couple of paragraphs typically is…

“A critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote.” – Mignon McLaughlin “The good critic is he who narrates the adventures of his soul among masterpieces.” – Anatole France “Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “Asking a working…

The very act of writing is a testament that anything is possible. Writing brings reality to what we cannot now do: the technology to travel to other solar systems; use of magical potions to immediately heal an injured comrade; the ability to cross the Old West or sail aboard a Roman galleon. Whether you pen fiction…

If you don’t have a personal Facebook page yet, you should give serious consideration to getting one. Facebook is the largest social networking site on the globe. Everyone on Facebook has a page on which they can post updates, photos, and videos about their life. A page can be set up so that either “friends” (and you…

How many times have you read a book then later as trying to find some statement or paragraph in it said under your breath, “What page was that on?” Eventually you probably just give in and look up the page number in the index or table of contents. Good thing the author included page numbers!…

Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise when tracking another or when being tracked. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on the plot of being tracked down. Man vs. natureYour main character is hired to capture some creature – a dangerous escaped…