On Writing

Writers offering advice to other writers when you’re creating your Steampunk work.

How to Write the Perfect Murder

February 9, 2012
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Hail and Hello fellow writers. Courtesy of my wife, I’ve just learned that in 1892, a Dr. Robert Buchanan murdered his wife. This bears no relation to my relationship with my own spouse, by the by. The not-so-very-good doctor overdosed his wife with morphine and then applied atropine to her eyes. This removed the closed pupils that would have indicated immediately that she had died of a morphine overdose. Concerned readers shall note that the authorities eventually apprehended Buchanan. Apparently, in his reading of Murder and Mayhem at university, the fellow managed to skip the course in “not living...

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Every Journey Requires of the Traveler…a Starting Point

January 19, 2012
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As a writer, I am startled by the tidbits of history I encounter in my reading of the daily news. Moments snipped out of time become collected in a handy repository: my notebook, the backs of envelopes, the scattered scraps of paper on the floor beneath my desk. Ahem, yes, I did mention that I was a writer? Right. Today, I came across a little gem amidst the rough and it occurred to me that, being very much among the company of writers in my pursuits online, it would be good of me to share. To wit, I give...

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On Writing: Creating Fantasy World Slang

May 20, 2011
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A steampunk world–any fantasy world, really–will have more depth and feel more real if it’s given its own language. I’m not talking about fantasy languages the reader can’t understand (thanks for that, Tolkien), but slang. This article is about where slang comes from and ways to make up your own. Slang is a bit harder to come up with than a fantasy language. A foreign word can be completely made up and still work, but slang often uses recognizable words in unusual ways. Done wrong, it makes the world feel silly. But done right, it not only makes a...

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On Writing: The Secret Ingredient

May 16, 2011
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Every writer, whether they are out or still firmly entrenched in their closet, is looking for the Secret Ingredient that will transform his or her fiction into fantastical magnificence. The sobering truth is we all know what the Secret Ingredient is, we just fail to recognize it or sprinkle liberally into our writing because it seems, well, so simple. The truth is, the Secret Ingredient to amazing, best-selling fiction of any genre, but in particular steampunk, Is sensory input. The human mind, like a machine, is nothing without input. We crave it. We seek it. We will topple over...

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