Andrew Ferguson
Children's/YA Author
Archives
6 Terrible Bad Guy Lines From the Big Screen
Posted on May 26, 2021 Leave a Comment
This is a list of lame lines of dialogue delivered by villains. Lines that were probably meant to sound cool and sinister but failed to produce quite the right effect.
Book Review: Steelheart
Posted on May 25, 2021 Leave a Comment
There are two things I really like: Brandon Sanderson and superhero stories, so when I heard that Sanderson had written a series of superhero stories, I knew I had found my next book.
Book Review: Burning Bright
Posted on May 20, 2021 Leave a Comment
Originally published 27/01/2019 SPOILER ALERT Anyone who has not read Burning Bright by John Steinbeck is hereby advised that this post contains spoilers. Well, well, well, believe it or not, I’ve never reviewed a John Steinbeck book before, despite repeatedly implying that he’s one of my all time favourite authors. That changes today with this […]
On Character Traits
Posted on April 20, 2021 Leave a Comment
Let your reader get to know Dave by experiencing Dave, not simply being told about Dave.
Writing a Good Character Description
Posted on April 6, 2021 Leave a Comment
Remember: a character is defined what they do and say, not by their physical appearance. Therefore, use physical descriptions to bring out their key traits. First ask yourself who this character is and what important details of their life and personality you wish to convey.
Should You Use Profanity in Your Story?
Posted on March 16, 2021 Leave a Comment
This all got me thinking about the use of profanity in fiction. We authors walk a fine line between realism and rudeness, especially when it comes to writing dialogue. Where do you draw the line?
Well… it depends.
Writing Child Characters
Posted on March 13, 2021 Leave a Comment
It can be tempting to approach child characters differently from adults. Don’t fall into this trap. A character is a character, regardless of age. They are all imaginary people made up of motivations, goals, backstories, dialogue and all that wonderful stuff.
Fiction: Reality Refined
Posted on March 5, 2021 Leave a Comment
There are two kinds of story in this world. Those that are not at all true to life and therefore are completely unsatisfactory, and those that create the illusion of being true to life but, in fact, are not. Very few stories (even those meticulously and faithfully based on true events) accurately reflect real life once they’ve been structured in a way which allows them to be communicated, because real life is far too much of a jumble for that to be possible.
Using Dialogue to Bring Your Characters to Life
Posted on January 28, 2021 Leave a Comment
They say we all smile in the same language. Fortunately for us writers, just about everything else we say, we say in our own unique way. It doesn’t matter if everybody in the room speaks the same language (English, for instance); accent, dialect and all the different words and idioms we tend to use have given each one of us a way of speaking which is almost as peculiar to ourselves as our fingerprints. For us story tellers, understanding and harnessing this knowledge can be the difference between writing a good story and creating a masterpiece.
8 Useful Posts on Fiction Writing
Posted on January 12, 2021 Leave a Comment
Sometimes, I just can’t say it better than my fellow bloggers, and since it’s been a while since I’ve compiled a ‘list of things I like’ kind of post (in fact, I don’t think I’ve done it since the very first post I ever wrote for Penstricken; sigh) I decided that it was about time I did another one. And what better thing to list than some of the best story-writing related posts from other blog sites that I have found particularly useful or insightful in recent weeks.
In reality, there’s dozens of writing and fiction related blogs I like to read on a regular basis and there have been numerous posts I’ve read lately that I could include in this list. I could not even begin to list them all. This is just a selection of some that I have recently come across (not necessarily ones that were written recently) which proved invaluable to me.
Andrew Ferguson 