Author: Tara Maya
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What Are the Obligatory Scenes for Genre Fiction?
I’ve been reading The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne. It’s a meaty book on writing, from the point of view of an editor who has an eye for highly popular, commercially successful books. His method is similar to Scott Bell’s Save the Cat outlining method, and since I’m a fan of…
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Recommended for Writers: The Story Grid by Shawn Coyne
The classic book on outlining, originally written for screenplays, is Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat. For some examples of how I use the Snyder outline, and other outlining methods I use, you can peek at some posts I did for NaNoWriMo: How To Create A Three Act Beat Sheet My Favorite Outlining Method How To Make…
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Tara Maya’s Book Review: The Fire Seer by Amy Raby
Caveat—Reader Beware! My reviews are written from a writer’s perspective, with an eye to dissecting good novels to find out what makes them work. Although I try to avoid explicitly discussing book endings, I am not as careful about avoiding all spoilers as some reviewers. I find if I employ too much caution about giving…
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Novel Excerpt: The Fire Seer by Amy Raby
About The Fire Seer: PAIRED WITH HER WORST ENEMY… Taya has risen from humble roots to become a fire seer in the Coalition of Mages. Eager to prove herself, she arrives in the town of Hrappa to locate a “jackal”—a mage operating outside the Coalition’s authority—who has murdered three people. But in Hrappa, she discovers…
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Differences Between Genre Fiction Before and After the Millennium (Guest Post by Jack P.)
By and large, 90s was about wondrous adventures and hilarious hijinks along the way. Since the early 00s, it took a turn toward the night along with society at large. Here are some of the main differences that happened beyond the Post-Millennial Shift, due in no small part to the events of 9/11/01. Which is…
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Tara Maya’s Quickie Check In
This week I’ve been working on Mirror, Book 8 in The Unfinished Song, and also on a section of Sworn, Book 10. (There’s a reason; technically the events of the storyline from Sworn antedate the events in Mirror. That’s one of the odd things that happens when the Story Order of events differs from the…
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What’s the Difference Between Romantic Fantasy and Fantasy Romance?
There are few stories that aren’t improved by a strong romance; but this does not make every story a Romance in the sense of belonging to the Romance Genre, i.e. a book that would be shelf-mates with Bodice Rippers and Regencies. The same distinction coheres to the difference between a Fantasy novel with a strong…
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Recommended for Writers: Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Since month we’ll be celebrating Fantasy Romance… and characters are at the heart of Romance, I wanted to recommend a good primer on creating believable and likable (or loathsome) characters. Orson Scott Card’s book, Characters & Viewpoint, is, in my opinion, the absolute best book on Character and Viewpoint out there. An experienced writer might read…
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Tara Maya’s Book Review: Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
Caveat—Reader Beware! My reviews are written from a writer’s perspective, with an eye to dissecting good novels to find out what makes them work. Although I try to avoid explicitly discussing book endings, I am not as careful about avoiding all spoilers as some reviewers. I find if I employ too much caution about giving…