Seriously, watch this before you attempt to write anything set in WWI.

The title says it all. From Military SF writer Rick Partlow.

As an artist, you are a manipulator. Your job is to make the audience believe you. To make them trust you. And the way to do that, is through imperfections.

Check it out.

TLDR: Lucy, a super-sexed girl-next-door, goes on the ultimate power fantasy, as justified by a 13-year-old boy’s rule-of-cool in a movie that fails due to motivational mismatch.

I don’t usually do this, but I’ll review a movie that didn’t work to show why. Also, because otherwise I’d have lost an hour of my life (I skimmed a lot through all the obvious parts).

Synopsis: Lucy is an exchange student in Taiwan, where she is tricked into delivering a case of drugs to a big drug lord. There, she is abused and cut open to become a drug mule with a bag of drugs hidden inside her abdomen.

So far, the movie is a standard thriller: Lucy is forced into a bad situation, the situation gets worse, and everything she does to stay alive and escape is completely inadequate. She’s running while tied to a wall (literally). If you can forgive the cross-cut hunting and lecture scenes, it’s actually a fairly standard setup with some nice cinematography.

But then things change. (more…)

English is my third language, and the one I most prefer to write in.

That’s because it’s the language that I’ve read the most in, and the one I’ve practiced writing in the most.

It wasn’t always like this. (more…)

Here’s the truth: Length doesn’t matter.

Ever.

I could throw in a juvenile pun here, but I’m going to spare you that. Instead I’ll focus on the fact that there is no set length for a chapter.

Translation: there are no rules. (more…)

People say you have to revise. You never know who “people” are. It’s everyone. You know, people.

It’s what everybody knows. So people say you have to revise.

They say it, but that doesn’t make it true… (more…)

The Vlog Brothers. John and Hank Green. Excellent writers, talk waaaaay too fast.

But stop the clip and take a look at how John uses descriptions, and tags, and traits in his Most Relatable Unrelatable Story. Watch and learn:

The gun on the mantle piece doesn’t have to go off, and doesn’t even have to be there, at least not in the final draft, but it’s good to have it there while writing. (more…)

Tank Doodle Generator

Because everyone needs infinite drawings of tanks.

Yes, you do, too. (more…)