Breaking the Fourth Wall: Writing, Sci-Fi, and Speculation

Ever since I decided to become a writer and publish a book, my stories have been all about breaking the fourth wall. No matter who the characters are, what the genre is, or what the story is about, the plot is centered on a main character who is seemingly trapped in reality. Leo from Netherworld is given the Knowledge that another world exists, and he does all he can to break free of the suffocating misfortunes of life on Earth and visit this planet.  Finley from Fiction’s Lie (yes, I just recently changed his name) must travel to the world he created in his fantasy novel to save his characters and reason with his hero who has gone renegade.

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The “First Book You’ve Ever Read” Challenge

It’s called a “challenge” for a reason. Trying to think of the first book I’ve read really is a challenge, especially if you’re not sure what kind of “book” we’re referring to here. If it was my actual first book ever, we’d be talking Curious George or one of those Little Golden Books or “Hey Al,” but then no one would be reading this post. So I just went with what Marrok McIntyre did in his first post of the challenge and picked the first novel I read. 

By the way, Marrok is the one who tagged me and is the founder of this challenge. He is a fantasy writer and an all around awesome person, and you should definitely check out his blog!

Realism and Antirealism in Writing

As a writer, I draw upon realism to create antirealistic worlds. As a reader, I have to accept truth on different terms when I immerse myself in a book and believe in the fantastical world the story is about. Versimilitude is the appearance of being real or true. It’s important when it comes to both writing and filmmaking, and is an art that requires skill and technique to make your reader believe that what they are reading is actually true.

April WIPjoy: Fun Facts about Fiction’s Lie

WIPjoy is a writing hashtag game organized by Bethany A. Jennings in which for each day of the month, writers across social media answer a question about their WIP. It’s mainly over on Twitter, and usually that’s where I participate, but I was busy that month and wasn’t able to answer questions every day that month. So I decided to wait and make it a blog post: fun facts about my WIP, Fiction’s Lie.

My Top 5 Favorite Musicals

Storytelling in music is one of my favorite things, from lyrics to genres, from film scores to musicals. And we’ll stop at musicals, because that is the topic of this post. What’s so unique about musicals is that they are purely theatrical—meaning that they are purposely unrealistic (which is the main reason why many people dislike them). So, here’s my short list of my top 5 favorites, in no particular order.

3 Writing Exercises with Music

Sometimes you need to take a break from your main writing project. Spending all your writing time on just one project can get overwhelming and you might notice that your coffee fuel starts draining faster the longer and more often you spend working on one particular story. When it comes to my writing for Fiction’s Lie, schoolwork and essay writing has forced it aside. And when push comes to shove, my actual novel writing topples out of the once beautiful picture.

But, putting the school work and non-creative writing aside, it’s important to take breaks. And one of the best ways spending those breaks is working on another writing project. It doesn’t matter what kind of writing that is. It can be a poem, a random scene, experimenting with characters, dialog, action scenes, description, you name it. I call these writing breaks writing exercises because not only do you give you a fresh mind and some time away from your big WIP project, they also strengthen your writing, so that when you come back to your WIP after that break, you’ll feel rejuvenated and armed with some skills or scenes or new ideas to add to your manuscript.

6 Tips for Being a Productive Writer

Sometimes being a writer requires, well, writing. (Who knew?) But sometimes all artists have a hard time making sure to make art consistently. Obstacles of all sorts appear frequently and our creativity sometimes seems under Loki’s influence. So we must learn to push through the road blocks, even when we’re not feeling particularly creative or inspired. A little stubbornness and self-determination will build up persistance in getting the thing done. But in order to do that, we sometimes need to eliminate or add certain things to our lifestyle. So here is some advice on how to stay productive, organized into six different points.