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The Fundamental Difference Between Fantasy and Science Fiction
You’d be forgiven if you didn’t know the exact boundaries between fantasy and science fiction. Fans of one tend to be fans of the other, resulting in a lot of cross-pollination and blurring. It happens so often that they’re commonly grouped under the umbrella term “speculative fiction.” Any fan will tell you that science fiction…
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Writing Prompts 4
April showers bring — writing prompts. That’s the best seasonal joke I can come up with. Anyway, here are five more for your writing routine.
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Idea You Can Steal 4: Grandma’s Coupons
The calendar has given March an extra Friday, so here’s a bonus story idea for your Easter basket. Enjoy!
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Friday Flash 3: Black Thunder
Clouds gather overhead, black against the evening sun. Wind flees before the army, turning up the leaves on the trees.
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Idea You Can Steal 3: The Box
Top o’ the mornin’ to ye, friends. (Or afternoon, or evening, or…) Happy St. Patrick’s Day! There may not be a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but there is a story idea.
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We Stress Reading Too Much
So I have a confession to make. I can’t remember the last time I read a novel for pleasure. The last book I chose to read was nonfiction. According to some fiction writers on the internet, I’ve failed at one of the first rules of being a serious writer — reading. Writers are supposed to…
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Writing Prompts 3
Spring is nearly here. (Or fall, if you’re in the southern hemisphere.) Here’s a bouquet of prompts to start a new season of writing.
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Friday Flash 2: Our New World
At last, we found it — the new Earth. What our scans had prophesied would be a new home. Air, water. Life? We did not know what became of the old Earth. Perhaps destroyed in anger lightyears ago by a miniature sun. Not that any of us cared, really.
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Idea You Can Steal 2: The Monk and the Engineer
Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day, readers! Or Singles Appreciation Day. Or Hearts Day. Whatever you call February 14th. Anyway, here’s another story idea you can steal.
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Goethe’s Three Criteria
If I learned nothing else from Professor Todd’s classes, it was Goethe’s Three Criteria. Though Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is best known as a poet and playwright, he also wrote criticism and is credited with developing a three-part critical framework. Professor Todd drilled these into our heads in his History of Theater classes. The written…