Good luck from II to everyone taking or about to take finals, which includes many of our contributors and a webmaster or two, which means that II will be moving slower than usual, which means that everyone should start panicking because the world is coming to an end.
OR you can just head over to our forums where everything is moving along as if no one realizes that death and destruction is imminent. Jerk has quite a few writing exercises (titled “Exercise X” where X stands for a roman numeral corresponding with the number of the exercise), which are pretty useful on both a technical and imaginative level. There’s a rather interesting story thread that anyone can jump into and Drunk Fox has a few more D:LT sporks up.
On the anti-shurtugal.com situation (TL;DR version): Because godaddy = epic failsauce the domain name never transferred to Sly and now someone else owns it. Yea, wtf rite.
At any rate, use the forums to tide you over while the staff here attempt to pass classes. XD
Effective immediately, all sporking will now occur in the forums. We’ve already got a couple: Ari’s Maradonia [Part 3], [Extra] and Dan Locke’s Battlefield Earth. Anyone wanting to post a spork on anything, feel free to do so anytime.
On the article side of things, Falconempress’ On Christopher Paolini’s Literary Offenses applies Inheritance to all the major AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE things not to do when writing fiction as defined by an actual literary genius: Mark Twain. On a sidenote, Twain has some very compelling things to say about storywriting. You should check out some of his writing advice if you get the chance.
lccorp2 has analyzed Chapter 4 of Bitterwood. And did you know that infodumping isn’t the only way to get information to a reader? YARLY! lccorp2 tells us how in Description Without Describing.
Finally, if anyone is interested in writing for us, we’re always open for article submissions. Check out the submit page for more info.
A big THANK YOU to James Maxey for taking the time to discuss Bitterwood with us.
Being the author aside, it’s rare that we get advocates for books we review negatively posting counter-arguments in a clear, logical, and courteous manner. Compared to [other people], it’s quite refreshing, actually. I may not be a fan of his books, but my respect for him as a person has grown immensely. If you haven’t been keeping up with the comments, the discussion starts here. Also thanks to everyone who’s been participating for the great posts, and especially to lccorp2. If you haven’t jumped in yet, it doesn’t seem to be too late. Like the tweet says, Mr. Maxey is a pretty cool guy and if you post your questions/viewpoints, he might actually respond!1
Please welcome TheHarper to our contributor team. For a change, he’s actually looking at what makes great books great. It’s a point that gets lost in all the negativity floating around here at II, but it’s true that you can learn from good books too. So go give the article a read, you won’t be disappointed.
1 Not that I’m guaranteeing this in any way whatsoever. >_>
No announcements, moving on.
The Drunk Fox feat. Nate W have Chapter 4 of D:LT ready for general consumption. This one is done in a rather “unique” format so go “read” it if you haven’t yet. For those who aren’t masochistic enough to actually read the entire thing, Nate Winchester has provided a faithful abridged version of CP’s Eldest. Sly has a quick but useful exercise in critical analysis. Good stuff. Last but not least, lccorp2 has suffered through sporked another two chapters of Bitterwood. [ Chapter 2 ] [ Chapter 3 ]
Interestingly enough, someone by the moniker James Maxey (who happens to be the author of Bitterwood that happens to be the book that lccorp2 has been reviewing) has posted some insight about the book in the comments. I can’t really vouch for the authenticity of the persona claim, but he’s started an articulate and intelligent discussion on Bitterwood that everyone interested in the nuances of writing fiction should check out. Link here.
Happy Easter from II!
Sly’s got some changes planned to the site. Not sure when it’s going to happen, but please excuse any construction you happen to come across.
As for updates, Falconempress has reviewed Deeper for us. And for a change, it seems to be a book that’s not completely fail. Ari has the second spork for the flaming pile of dog crap that’s Maradonia up for your reading pleasure. Kitty has illustrated another scene from Eragon. It totally does the gravity of the moment justice, IMO. Finally, we’d like to welcome lccorp2 to the contributor team. Go check out his awesome chapter by chapter breakdown of Bitterwood.
On the forum side of things, we’ve got some great writing-related discussions going: Religion in Fiction, Perfecting a Story, and Tone in Writing, among others. There’s also some less srsbnss threads if braining isn’t your thing. Or why not start a new topic?
Hope everyone’s eyes survived our April Fool’s joke. Credit to Sly & Co. for finding such a horrendous color combination to unleash upon us.
April 1st articles aside, Lord Snow has cranked out EWW Twilight: Part 9. It’s positively vitriolic, as usual. Kitty has provided pix for one of Twilight’s more campy tender moments. And from newcomer Ari, a spork on Maradonia and the Seven Bridges. Really, the title itself kind of makes me gag. Welcome to the team, Ari.
In other news, there’s been some hilarity in the article comments. We’ve got this little gem in defense of SMeyer’s Twilight. And it seems like Ari’s spork has hurt some feelings: Relevant 1. Revelant 2. Yes, they are the same person and probably Gloria Tesch. For discussion that’s actually intelligent, head over to our redesigned forums. Hint: The forums are II’s well-kept secret that failtrolls aren’t smart enough to find. So shhhh…