Plot: themes expanded
In this last blog before I start the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month if you didn't already know), I'm going to go slightly deeper into the topic of themes.But first a digression. The aim of the NaNoWriMo is to write a fifty thousand word first draft of a novel in a month, the month being November. This is my first attempt. I've done the sister campaign, the April Script Frenzy, when you write an entire movie script in a month. I did a mock NaNo in July, when I wrote 100K words. So this time I'm aiming for 100K words as well.To that end, I've been outlining the plot and detailing the characters using the snowflake method - see

7th Son: Descent by J C Hutchins
Just a quick reminder: I don't give 5 stars (well maybe once or twice a decade). I'm stingy. I'm mean.So, on with the review.7th Son: Descent by J. C. HutchinsNow, I haven't r

Review: 'Riders of the Spew' by Robert Thompson
Remember, I hardly ever expect to give 5 stars to anything. 1 star is so bad, I wouldn't even finish the book.2 = OK, passes the time3 = Good, would recommend and read again4 = Very, very good.'Riders of the Spew' by Robert Thompson (available from Smashwords and Amazon)OK, where to begin with this one? Don't think I've read a book quite like it before. Robert Thompson fills nearly all his pages with action, action and more action. Occasionally interspersed with dry humour.It would have been hard for me to

Reviews: Spellbound by Jaimey
My review system:5 stars is only given to books that are brilliant; ones that I will want to read again and again, ones that will become classics. I haven't come across more than a double handful of those in my lifetime, and I read a lot.4 stars is given to books that are very, very good.3 stars goes to good books, that I enjoyed and which had few or minor slips.2 stars means that it passed the time in the absence of anything better to do, but I wouldn't want to read it again.1 star indicates that I was sorry I ever picked the thing up, and wouldn't want to recommend it to my worst enemy.

Plot structure - expanded
This post focuses on the classic Aristotelian three act structure.Broadly speaking, any work of fiction, whether a novel, novella, short story, play or film script, will fit into the three act structure. I'm going to generalise here, but the structure goes something like this.Act one:About one quarter of the length of the work. Starts off with the main characters going about their daily business. A little scene-setting, as it were. A short way in (3-7 minutes for a film, somewhere in the first chapter for a novel) comes theInciting incident (also called the complication.)This is the thing that