"How to Write"—Free Ebook

The subtitle is "My Approach May Not Work for You," which is true of any writing how-to.  It's too individualistic an art.  Nevertheless, out of ten years' worth of work and 140,000 words, not all of which were published on this blog (and a few have had minor changes), there's bound to be something in the book you can use.

It's free to read or download (but not train AI on or, of course, pirate!) here.  See my entry Ebooks Update for a full list.

Table of Contents below the jump; those not posted here already are in bold italics:

"How to Write"

My Approach May Not Work for You
Why Write?
Write to Be a Writer

"Writing 101": Building Blocks
"101" Part 1: Strong Verbs
"101" Part 2: Passive Voice
"101" Part 3: Weak Noun-Verb Constructions
"101" Part 4: Concrete Nouns
"101" Part 5: Overusing Adjectives and Adverbs
"101" Part 6: Visual Adjectives
"101" Part 7: Piled-up Prepositions
"101" Part 8: Redundancies
"101" Part 9: Throwaways
"101" Part 10: Subordinate Clauses

"Writing 102": Writing for Effect
"102" Part 1: Transitions
"102" Part 2: Parallel Structure
"102" Part 3: Elliptical Wording
"102" Part 4: Tempo
"102" Part 5: Rhythm and Eloquence
"102" Part 6: Tone
"102" Tone Extra—Warm or Cool
"102" Part 7: Alliteration and Assonance
"102" Part 8: Jargon
"102" Part 9: Slang
"102" Part 10: "Substandard" Usage
"102" Part 11: Pejoratives and Obscenities
"102" Part 12: Double Entendres

"Writing 201": What's Your Goal?
"201" Goal 1: Simple Comprehension
"201" Goal 2: Agreement
"201" Goal 3: Anger
"201" Goal 4: Bedazzlement
"201" Goal 5: Humor
"201" Goal 6: Nostalgia
"201" Goal 7: Storytelling
"201" Goal 8: Surprise
"201" Goal 9: Wonder

"Writing 202": Story Elements
"202" Part 1: Names
"202" Part 2: More on Names
"202" Part 3. Even More on Names
"202" Part 4: Races and Species
"202" Part 5: Diction
"202" Part 6: Motifs
"202" Part 7: Conflict/Problem Form
"202" Part 8: Conflict/Problem Resolution

"Writing 203": Characters
"203" Part 1: Depicting Characters
"203" Part 2: Conflicted Characters
"203" Part Part 3: Designing Protagonists
"203" Part Part 4: Designing Antagonists
"203" Part 5: Incomprehensible Antagonists Extra
"203" Part 6: Supporting Characters
"203" Part 7: More on Dialog
"203" Part 8: Character Description

"Writing 300": Writing in a Genre—Science Fiction and Fantasy
"300" Part 1: Magic (for a Fantasy Novel)
"300" Part 2: Making Sense of Magic
"300" Part 3: The Fermi Paradox of Fantasy
"300" Part 4: Technology (for a Science Fiction Novel)
"300" Part 5: Extrapolating Technology Sensibly
"300" Part 6: The Society and Culture Curve
"300" Part 7: The Society and Culture Curve for Science Fiction
"300" Part 8: Tech and Society
"300" Part 9: How Magic Works, Part 1
"300" Part 10: How Magic Works, Part 2
"300" Part 11: World-Building and Culture 1: Leisure Culture
"300" Part 12: World-Building and Culture 2: Individual Choice
"300" Part 13: World-Building and Culture 3: Fearless Monster Hunters
"300" Part 14: World-Building and Culture 4: Second-Class Citizens
"300" Part 15: World-Building and Culture 5: Mages and Culture
"300" Part 16: World-Building and Culture 6: Mages and Culture
"300" Part 17: World-Building and Culture 7: Mystique
"300" Part 18: World-Building and Culture 8: Bestiary

"Writing 301," How to Write a Memorable (Fantasy) Novel
"301" Part 1: What's the Idea?
"301" Part 2: Idea to World-Building
"301" Part 3: World-Building to Protagonist
"301" Part 4: Protagonist to Plot
"301" Part 5: Plot to Style
"301" Part 6: Style to Theme I
"301" Part 7: Style to Theme II
"301" Part 8: Style to Theme III
"301" Part 9: Theme and Pacing

Layered Writing

"Writing 302": Revisions

Writing a Series

Writing a Series: What Works, Canon, and More
Part 1: Go Home with the One…
Part 2: Power vs. Skill
Part 3: Going from Partner to Partner
Part 4: Canon
Part 5: Retcons
Part 6: Prequels
Part 7: "Drowning in Their Own Complications"

Writing a Series: The Edge
Part 1: Offense
Part 2: Defense
Part 3: Versatility
Part 4: Mobility
Part 5: "Smarts"

Writing a Genius
Part 1: What Not to Do
Part 2: What to Do

Writing a Series: Keeping It Compelling
Part 1: World-Building
Part 2: Characterization
Part 3: Character Growth
Part 4: Plot Advancement
Part 5: Plot Variation
Part 6: Resetting
Part 7: Aging

Let's Write a Short Story

Writing by Topic

Characterization
Fantasy Characterization
Grieving Protagonists
Superheroes and Great (Wo)men of History
Character Motivation
The Importance of Characterization: Two Detectives
A Little Characterization, with Patricia C. Wrede
A Classic Considered: Tanith Lee's Cyrion
A Moment for Characterization with Georgette Heyer
Let's Not Do Description Like This

Description
"How to Write" Extra: Description
A Moment with Robert E. Howard, for Description
Description with Robert E. Howard Part 2
A Little More Description with Robert E. Howard
A Little More on an Aspect of Description
Description and Me: Then and Now
A Moment with Tanith Lee, for Description
A Moment for Description, with Raymond Chandler

Dialog
Not a Simple Hello
"Call Me Ishmael" This Isn't
Flirting
"Said"
Fantasy Dialog
Dual-Purpose Dialog
Act/React

Exposition
Exposition and How to Avoid It
A Few Thoughts on Rendering Exposition

Plotting
Meaningful Lives, and Deaths
Happy Endings
Plot Scenes and Incidents
Let's Plot out a Story
Plotting, World-Building, and Coincidence
World-Building Can Drive Plotting
Secret Conflicts
Mindless Action
Love—At First Sight!

The Premise
"What if" and Plot
The Premise of Time Travel
Following Faker's Premise
Following End of the Line's Premise
Thinking Through the Premise
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 1: The "Memorializer"
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 2: Dwarves
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 3: Longevity's Price
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 4: A Manly Paragon
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 5: Ghosts
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 6: A World Revisited
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 7: A Magical Working
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 8: Portals, Gates, and Teleportation
Thinking Through the Premise, Part 9: My T-Man Protagonist
What Story Do You Want to Tell? The Angle

Setting
Parallel Worlds
Why Parallel Worlds?
Classifying Parallel Worlds
A Hole in the World
The Red Wave
Population Pressures?
Shadows Between Worlds: The Setting(s)
Puddle Between Worlds
Crystal Myth
19th-Century Settings
Cowboys of Color
White Snow Black Night
Libertarian Settings
High Magic? Or Low?
"Bones"
The True Meaning of Solstice
Entitled Nations
East vs. West, and Why
When Night and Day Hold Equal Sway
Neanderthals, Gnostics, Morlocks, Dwarves…and Captain Kirk
Dark Future
How Green Is My Alley
Progress Is a Modern Concept
Crannogs
Visual Range and the Horizon
Something Anyone Inspired by Tolkien Should Consider

World-Building
The Government in T-Man
Call Them Societal Roles
KWJ's First Law
Different Takes, and Originality
Crowns! Florins! Pieces of Eight!
Potions, Elixirs, and Other Terms for Fantasy (Writers)
Witches, Wizards, Warlocks and More Words for Mages
The Importance of Canon
Size Matters
No "Horsing" Around
Shrunken World
Parallel Worlds, Parallel People
The Henge Gates
Chaos and World-Building
Parallel Worlds and Theme
A Century of $
We're Turtles
Wave? Particle? Ray!
Small World(-Building)
When Working up an Interdimensional Organization
Freeze

But Is It Science Fiction?
Part 1: Distinguishing Characteristics
Part 2: Bug-Eyed Monsters!
Part 3: An Adventure Tale
Part 4: A Retold Tale
Part 5: Military SF
Part 6: Space Opera
Part 7: "Literary" Science Fiction
Part 8: Star Trek Part I
Part 9: Star Trek Part II
Part 10: Star Wars
Part 11: World-Building
Part 12: One More Example

Antagonists: "Evil"
Evil…?
Evil Part II: Good and Evil in Hearts and Fiction
"Evil": Selfish Malevolence
"Evil": Arrogant Malevolence
"Evil": Intolerant Malevolence
"Evil": Callous Malevolence
"Evil": Bureaucratic Malevolence
"Evil": Economic Malevolence
"Evil": The Malevolence of Incompetence
"Evil": The Root of…?
Everyone Is the Hero of Their Own Story, and Writing

Influences
H. Beam Piper
James H. Schmitz
Robert A. Heinlein
John Dalmas
John D. MacDonald
Lois McMaster Bujold
Rex Stout, Georgette Heyer, and Roger Ebert

Writing Miscellany
The World That Suits You
The Head, Hobbit
Climb, You Clod
Dread
How to Survive in a Violent World: Scene, Dialog, Setting…and Mistake
Self-Indulgence
Constructive Criticism
Publish or Self-Publish?
Hostages to Fortune
Hostages to Fortune II
Plausibility
Eleven Things I Try To Do as an Author
Forgettable Fiction
Writing for Resonance
Killing Off Characters
Pirates! Ninjas! Carjackers!
Honing Our Writing Intuition
Three Reasons for Horror
Once More, with Adverbs
Assumptions in Fiction (and Life)
More on Assumptions
Religion, Fantasy and Science Fiction
Does This Resonate with You?
Death? Unacceptable
It's a Vowel Thing
The Final Answer on the Oxford Comma

KWJ's Laws: The Three Laws of Communication
The First Law
The Second Law
The Third Law

Unconventional Writing Exercises
Exercises
Exercise #1
Exercise #2
Exercise #3
Exercise #4
Exercise #5: A Magical "Spell" or Two
Exercise #6
Exercise #7
Exercise #8
Exercise #9
"Answers"
"Answer" to Exercise #1
"Answer" to Exercise #2
"Answer" to Exercise #3
"Answer" to Exercise #4
"Answer" to Exercise #5
"Answer" to Exercise #6
"Answer" to Exercise #7
"Answer" to Exercise #8
"Answer" to Exercise #9

About the Author
"Legend"