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NaNoWriMo Isn’t For Everyone
Last week, we posted about strategies for making it through National Novel Writing Month. This week, a couple of us are going to talk about why we aren’t doing NaNo this year, and why that’s totally...
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After The Thrill Is Gone, or: How to Make Your NaNoWriMo Pay Off
Editor’s note: So far this November, we’ve talked about National Novel Writing Month‘s good points and bad points, strategies for making it to 50,000 words, and why NaNo might not be for everyone. In...
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Then stop.
One of the tough parts about writing short stories, especially if you’re used to reading novels or series instead, is that short stories stop. How does one accomplish this feat? You need an ending....
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Guest Post: Rachel Grinti on Collaboration and Publishing
(Editor’s note: For our last post of 2011, Alpha graduate and soon-to-be debut author Rachel Grinti is here to talk about what it’s like to co-author [and publish!] a novel. Happy holidays, and we’ll...
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Basics of Worldbuilding
All stories happen somewhere. Whether your story is highly advanced sci-fi, sword and sorcery fantasy, urban fantasy, or any of the other many subgenres of speculative fiction, chances are you’ll have...
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Worldbuilding, Part 2: Government and Society
In my last post on worldbuilding, I only talked about the basics. In this post, I’ll go into more detail on a few aspects of worldbuilding, mainly government and social structure. The most important...
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From the Archives: How to write a (good) application story in the next week
[Editor's note: This post originally went up around this time last year, but here it is again for anyone who's relatively new to the Alpha blog. Enjoy!] Some of you, no doubt, are very diligent human...
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Worldbuilding, Part 3: Religion and Mythology
I’ve always loved reading about ancient mythologies, and creating religions and mythologies of my own is probably my favorite part of worldbuilding. However, like government and social structure,...
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A Fellow Procrastinator’s Guide to Writing Your Application Story at the Last...
So you’re going to apply to Alpha. You have it all planned out. You’ve convinced your parents. You can’t stop talking about it with your friends. You’re so excited to have the chance to spend two weeks...
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What Do I Do Now?
So you didn’t get into Alpha this year. What do you do now? First off: recover. It can be a really tense wait and all the ignoring it in the world doesn’t help if back-of-brain decides to fixate on it....
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A Week of Prompts
The Alpha application deadline is fast approaching, and that means at least a few people are panicking. Is the story good enough? I should write another– but I don’t have any ideas! Everything is...
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Writing Prompt 1: They Fight Crime!
This is not the original They Fight Crime!, but it’s still amazing. Spend a little while clicking through until you find a pair– or a solo hero, or a trio– that makes you want to write that story. You...
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Writing Prompt 2: Tell me this story.
A comet burned in the sky and snakes fell from the heavens the night of my birth. Problem is, there were another couple hundred thousand people born that night, too, and I think maybe the comet was for...
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Application Tip: Word Count Guidelines
Here at the Alpha citadel, we’ve gotten some questions about the word count guidelines for Alpha application stories–that is, the requirement that application stories must be between 2000 and 6000...
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Writing Prompt 3: Immortality
What happens when humans figure out immortality, but you can’t get younger and you can’t have kids afterward? No, really. A lot of immortality schemes involve eternal youth, but as Tithonus discovered,...
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Writing Prompt 4: The Lost City
Pick a lost or abandoned city. Set the story there, but maybe not in its last days. Atlantis, Port Royal, Pompeii, Machu Picchu, Helike, Camelot, El Dorado, Troy, Songo Mnara, Angkor, Great Zimbabwe,...
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Writing Prompt 6: Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig has flash prompts each week. Find one you like in the archives, or use this one. The story includes a botanical garden, fatherhood, and something talking that doesn’t normally talk. Online...
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Writing Prompt 7: The End Times
Here endeth the week of writing prompts. I hope you’ve gotten at least one idea from them. Leave a comment if you have a favorite exercise or prompt to inspire your next story. The last prompt: “No one...
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