OK.  My brain has snapped back into writerly mode after a hiatus.  So, onward with the rules of fiction per Samuel Clemens.

10. They require that the author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate; and that he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones.

I'd modify ( Read more... )

Rolling right along...

#8: They require that crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale.

Obviously, this is another smack at Fenimore Cooper, but the point is valid. Let’s translate it into Fire Emblem terms: crass stupidities ( Read more... )

 On with the next three rules of romantic fiction!

#5: They require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in ( Read more... )

So, moving on to the third and fourth rules in Mark Twain’s self-proclaimed rules for romantic fiction:

They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others.

But what about the zombies, Mr. Twain? Under which category do they qualify? ( Read more... )

I dislike grand pronouncements, so rather than explain what the new order of business is around here, I'm just going to do it.

Anyway, I don't know about you (really, I don't), but when I write something that's going up on public display, I want it to be the best I can write.  Not the best Fire Emblem fanfiction around or the best any kind of ( Read more... )