Authors Electric

  Venezuela As this is a difficult post to illustrate, I am using a couple of photos of husband Bob asleep at airports around the world.   Dreams are two-edged swords. Inexperienced writers frequently use them as a substitute for reality, so that they can write in a surrealist way, drop in a plot clue, and get away with it. Ending a story with the line it was all a dream is the biggest cop-out of the lot. Dreams aren’t really like reality at all.   Lucid dreams are dreams when you realise you are dreaming, and can actually make decisions about the direction the action will take, and if you’ve ever had one they can give you a real insight into what dreaming is like. There are ways of testing whether you’re asleep, as well. Electricity doesn’t work in a predictable way, and turning on a light won’t work. Most dreams are predominantly visual, with a bit of sound thrown in, and the occasional sensation. It is very unusual to smell something in a dream, or to taste anythi...

Odds and Ends It’s January, and I’m so busy turning over new leaves that time is in short supply so I thought I’d cobble together some odds and ends that I use when teaching, which might be of use. Or not! Coincidences When you are faced with something that has to be glossed over – such as a coincidence which may seem just a bit too fortuitous to the reader – it’s often best to tackle it head-on. For example, if a character is taken for someone else because they just happen to look alike, or have the same name, you could make the character reflect how strange this was. This makes the reader subconsciously realise that the writer knows this piece of information is a bit unlikely, and is flagging it up, rather than hoping the reader hasn’t noticed – or, even worse, being totally unaware themselves how contrived the situation will seem. Don’t let your reader think he or she is smarter than you are, or the suspension of disbelief will go up in smoke. Dream Sequences D...