Here’s another video, this time for the Literary Techniques for Speculative Fiction Online Class. This is my favorite so far.
Discussion and in-class writing exercises designed to introduce a number of techniques to use in your own writing such as foreshadowing, alliteration, rhythmic device, allusion, etc, and ways to test them out in short fiction as well as discussion of when and where to use them.
Want access to a lively community of writers and readers, free writing classes, co-working sessions, special speakers, weekly writing games, random pictures and MORE for as little as $2? Check out Cat’s Patreon campaign.
"(On the writing F&SF workshop) Wanted to crow and say thanks: the first story I wrote after taking your class was my very first sale. Coincidence? nah….thanks so much."
I’m finishing up converting the workshop I did at Surrey International Writers Conference a month or so ago, Dunking Your Readers in the Details, as an on-demand class. That class was in turn based on an hourlong online writing class I did for Greg Wilson’s Twitch channel a few months ago.
The class has been fun to put together. Over the course of being taught multiple times, it’s evolved to a point where it presents a dozen tools for writing more immersive worlds, and includes several exercises to allow you to test out the different techniques and see what works for you.
Curious about it? Here’s the section on prioritizing the senses.
A common tool of “Golden Age science fiction” “” the late 1930s through the 50s, when science fiction was first coming into its own as a genre “” was to invoke all five senses within the first page of a story.
It turns out there’s some science behind that method, in that writing that uses the senses creates more brain activity, setting off mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are neurons that fire under two circumstances: when you are experiencing an event and secondly when you are watching someone else experience it. Writing that invokes the senses makes mirror neurons fire, which makes your reader feel as though they’re experiencing what you are describing.
But beyond that, three of the five senses are more useful to you and should be focused on. Sight and sound will come naturally, and we’re inured to them from watching television and the movies. What you need to push to invoke are smell, taste, and most importantly: touch.
Why is the last the most important? Because touch is more than a question of smooth or rough, velvet versus pebbled. It includes:
â—¦ Temperature like a chilly breeze, the warmth of a sunbeam
â—¦ Bodily sensations such as pain, nausea, exhaustion, fever, itches
â—¦ Motion moments like falling, flying, and floating
When you use these senses in your writing, you are making the reader feel as though they are in the body of the point of view character and experiencing the story world through them. This is a key technique when writing an immersive world.
Update: the class is now available here!
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UPDATE: This went so well and everyone was so grateful that I went ahead and extended the sale through the end of the year. There are new links below to coupons that should let you access the classes at the $5 price. Let me know if there are any issues!
We are wrapping up the end of the year with a special promotion for THREE DAYS ONLY, December 24-26, by offering all Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers on-demand classes, including the ones from Ann Leckie, Rachel Swirsky, and Juliette Wade, for $5 or less.
Yep, that’s right. For less than $50Â you can, in fact, buy access to every class we currently offer. Did I mention it’s only through midnight of the 26th, aka three days (well, a little more since this is going out Sunday evening) only?
This is a let’s-close-out-2018-with-a-bang promotion and won’t be repeated again until next December (if we do). Here insert me talking in a Thunderdome announcer’s voice and repeating that vital phrase, THREE DAYS ONLY.
Seriously, though. If you want to pick up one (or many) of the classes, now’s the time, and you have lifetime (well, Teachable’s lifetime, which may or may not match mine or yours) access. And pass this offer along to as many people as you like, particularly your writing groups and friends. The more the merrier.
Want a live class? There’s still a few slots open in Stories That Change Our World as well as all the other live January classes, including opportunities with Seanan McGuire, Rachel Swirsky, and Fran Wilde.
And look for plenty of new Rambo Academy material there in the coming year, including on-demand versions of the Flash Fiction workshop, Punk U: How to Write -punk Fiction, Rachel Swirsky’s Speculative Poetry class, James Sutter’s High-Speed Worldbuilding, a class from Diane Morrison on time management and writing in odd moments “” and more.
Character Building Workshop for $5
Description and Delivering Information for Genre Writers for $5
Hex Engines & Spell-Slingers: Write Steampunk/Weird Western for $5
Literary Techniques for Genre Writers for $5
Moving from Idea to Finished Draft for $5
Old Stories Into New with Rachel Swirsky for $5
The Power of Words with Juliette Wade for $5
Reading to an Audience Workshop for $3
Rewriting, Revising, and Fine-Tuning Your Fiction for $5
To Space Opera and Beyond with Ann Leckie for $5
I’m continuing to update the listing of awards posts from F&SF publishing people every few days. Let me know if yours should be on there.I talked about the process behind the development of one of my favorite stories, “Rappacini’s Crow.”
I tried to consolidate a lot of useful resources for F&SF writers into this page, and am working on one for online writing workshops next. Suggestions for items to include on either page are welcome.
J.D. Moyer on Writer’s Workshops with Kim Stanley Robinson
Bitterballen ““Â Carleton Chinner Presents The Tastiest Snack You’ve Never Heard Of
Jennifer Lee Rossman talks about her new novel, Jack Jetstark’s Intergalactic Freakshow
Edward M. Erdelac talks about his novel The Knight With Two Swords and The Women of Arthurian LoreÂ
Interested in doing a guest blog post? The guidelines are newly updated to include more possibilities.
This month I featured a charity for holiday giving each day on my Patreon page. You can find them all here, regardless of whether or not you’re a Patreon supporter. Other things supporters got included a Q&A with Taco, photos of the current craft project, recipes, writing tips and resources, market news, snippets, and access to the Chez Rambo Discord server. Check out the Patreon page to find out how you can join our community!
The December giveaway is a novel critique by Cat. Mail me at cat AT kittywumpus.net by midnight December 31 with the subject line “December 2018 Giveaway.”
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(fantasy, short story) After the men in dark sunglasses ushered Djuna outside, spring’s chill chased her up the steps into the bus’s welcome heat. She wavered on the last step, suitcase in front of her like a wall, thinking, “My fiftieth spring on Earth, can I really leave that?” Someone pushed at her and she went in.
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