A story is about a character or characters who desperately wants something and pursues a goal through a series of actions and outcomes that escalate to the climax of the story, and the eventual resolution of the story. In simple terms -- this chain of cause and effect events is the 'plot' of a story. …
My Seven writing rules
First of all, I want to make it clear there are no rules for writing or story-telling. These are simply my rules, or perhaps more accurately 'preferences', that I have adopted for my own purposes. They worked for me and helped me publish four novels. If you're starting to write for the first time, maybe …
Science fiction or science fact?
I wondered about which topic to cover this month, and I chose my favourite genre, scifi. My favourite scifi authors were Herbert, Heinlein, Asimov, Clark, Aldis and Dick, all sadly no longer with us. Of course, there are new writers today; but none quite fill the boots of those classic writers. The 1980s and 1990s …
State of fear
Stephen King once said, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” He's right of course. The only way to improve as a writer is to learn from the best. I confess I read a lot -- a serious amount. But …
5 Story Questions to consider
The process of developing a story from a basic idea is not easy. When I first started writing fiction, I thought it was just a matter of discovering the plot events in the story - an outline. But it's more complex than that. Before starting a writing project you need to understand the story dynamics …
Learning storytelling from the movies
I'm a big fan of movies -- sci-fi, action-adventure, fantasy, rom-com, comedy -- even the kids movies and series like Ice Age, and Toy Story. I have a decent sized blue-ray and DVD library and it's fun to watch those great movies over and over again. But besides the entertainment value of movies, if you …
Taking stock
After publishing my latest novel, "The Healer", I've chosen to take some time out. Four novels in decade is not prolific writing, but I'm meant to be retired. This is my hobby and a passion. Some writers can churn out a novel in three months. Not me. Writing was never about churning out material, it …
The Healer
I am pleased to announce my latest novel, 'The Healer' is now available on Amazon in e-book and print form. The Healer is a slight departure from my three previous novels insofar that it isn't strictly part of the Science Fiction & Fantasy genre. That might seem strange since I have always described myself as …
Story by Numbers
Recently I bought Story by Numbers by Adam Skelter. I had watched a number of YouTube presentations on the "The Art of Story Channel" and was impressed with the quality of the presentations and movie analysis, and wanted to delve further into his approach to story development. First, a warning. Skelter uses some colourful language …
Plausibility – the biggest plot hole of all.
As a science fiction and fantasy writer it might seem odd for me to pick up on the idea that storylines should be plausible. After all, in the world of science fiction we have time travel, aliens, dystopian future worlds, mind control and many other implausible features in our writings. But we persuade our readers …
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JMJ Williamson 