Writers Can Learn from Romance Readers

by Laura on January 25, 2012

in Fiction Writing

The ABCs of Romance: The Duke of Slut, Mary Sue, TSTL, and More!.

Mary Sue/Gary Stu: A critical term reserved for badly-written protagonists who are too perfect—they are simply good at everything, everyone except the Bad Guys loves them, and they have no discernable character flaws. Mary Sues are generally disliked because, since they have no problems of their own, the conflicts they confront tend to be contrived. As well, with no flaws or quirks, many of them are simply not interesting.

Which of these have you done when writing fictional characters? I think I’m holding back on writing longer fiction cause I am horrified that my characters, so carefully developed, will be labeled as any one of these. Mary Sue/ Gary Stu being the one I fear the most!

Still, forewarned is… forewarned. This is a good list. Writers beware!

{ 0 comments }

What Writing Related Life Hack do you Use?

January 24, 2012

Curvy Girl Guide asked: “We want to know what items make your life easier. Not counting your phone what life hacks do you use?” I thought about it for a while and then wrote: My old TV tray. I use it to sort out the mail in the morning. I use it to sort through [...]

Read the full article →

Happy Year of the Dragon

January 23, 2012
Read the full article →

Twitter Tweets #30ThingsAboutMe

January 22, 2012

Twitter bares their soul with the hashtag #30ThingsAboutMe. How far would you go with a post about yourself, something personal, on Twitter? I wouldn’t post this list to Twitter. Although I’ve posted personal thoughts before I wouldn’t want to make that many posts in a row there. Also, I do feel there is a line [...]

Read the full article →

Places to Write Online

January 21, 2012

Get started writing, get paid a little as you go, get used to keeping a writing schedule and get your name on something published for others to read and give you feedback. These are some interesting places to write for online: Yahoo!Voices Open Salon Technorati Suite101 HubPages

Read the full article →

The Messy Etiquette Consultant

January 20, 2012

Etiquette is about manners and protocol. You can get by with common sense and courtesy. But some etiquette rules really do have to be learned, especially when dealing with cultures other than your own. It could be an interesting career choice. If you wrote a character who is an etiquette consultant how would she look, [...]

Read the full article →

From Twitter – #FactsWithoutWikipedia

January 19, 2012

This was a pretty funny hashtag on Twitter yesterday. I posted a few myself. It’s not easy being funny. If you have time to warm up you can get better, your jokes become smarter and you come up with them faster. Try write several ideas for the hashtag #FactsWithoutWikipedia. Write at least 3 and see [...]

Read the full article →

Censorship Protest Blackout

January 18, 2012

  Corporations and governments should not have too much control over the Internet.

Read the full article →

Podcasting

January 17, 2012

A list of podcasting links I started collecting last year. Posting them today, just out of the blue. I thought I would get into podcasting (and I may yet) but I don’t seem to be heading that way right now. Podcast Awards Blubrry PowerPress Podcast plugin for WordPress Marketing Latinos: Podcasting FAQ Womens Radio on [...]

Read the full article →

The Dictionarium

January 16, 2012

Flickr: The Dictionarium – In contemporary usage, a place for those obsessive types who collect or take pictures of dictionaries of all shapes, sizes, types and linguistic predilections. Not something I have thought to do. But, I do actually have a photo of my dictionary. I took the photo because I had a pressed flower [...]

Read the full article →

House Sitter

January 15, 2012

Would you take a job as a house sitter? It seems pretty glamorous to live somewhere else and get paid for it. But, there would be a lot of responsibility as well. Not the same as a property manager but still a good idea to have some of those same knowledge and skills. I thought [...]

Read the full article →

#TweetYourThesis

January 14, 2012

Condensing your idea into a few words has a way of giving you focus. So if you #TweetyourThesis on Twitter, with its limit of 140 characters (including spaces), should show you what you really are trying to write your thesis about. If it works for a thesis, why not any non-fiction you are working on? [...]

Read the full article →

Friday the 13th

January 13, 2012

Be nice to black cats…. it’s Friday the 13th!

Read the full article →

Reality Can Not Destroy You

January 12, 2012

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. – Ray Bradbury

Read the full article →

The Delights of Personal Grooming of the Feet

January 11, 2012

This is going to sound silly but I really like the feeling of having my toenails freshly cut. I don’t know why. It must be like a horse freshly trimmed by the blacksmith. I’m really glad I don’t have to wear iron shoes. My family seem to have a bare foot thing. Most of them [...]

Read the full article →

Exercise with Writing Themes

January 10, 2012

From Writing Forward: Three Fiction Writing Exercises How do you start writing a new story? What is the original idea that germinates into a story? For me it tends to be the theme or some small idea that becomes part of a larger plot. I like this writing exercise because it’s how things start for [...]

Read the full article →

Are We Becoming Social Hermits?

January 9, 2012

Our world is shrinking. The Internet was predicted to bring sweeping changes to the way we communicate, to bring the world together, connecting us all as a community over distances. Maybe the changes aren’t working for everyone. Have you noticed there seem to be more cases of shut ins, people with agoraphobia and other social [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries