Friday, June 23, 2006

Ooo, Shiny! New Items at HollyShop!

As you saw by my previous post and my updated sidebar, the HollyShop has a few new items up for your reading pleasure. I haven't had a chance to write up reviews for all the items as yet, but I did want to make a special mention about Holly Lisle's Create a Character Clinic and her worldbuilding series.



The CCC is a fab book. I have breezed through it without doing the exercises, more to get a feel for technique, advice, and general characterization trends. It's a great book for helping you get to the heart of your characters (which is what I was using it for), and it looks to be an excellent way to create characters from scratch should you need that first inspirational push with an idea or to just break past a block. There's also a great section at the end that discusses the traditional gaffes of writing characters (looking in a mirror to describe your MC, etc.) and how they can be spun into something unique and valuable to your story. An excellent writing tool.



This is the first installment of Holly's worldbuilding series, and I must say that I am eager to get my hands on this gem. Putting together a language for Velorin wasn't very easy. I had pulled together info from a couple of sites that seemed authoritative, but it just didn't click well for me. I like the basics of what I developed, but I really wanted a step-by-step process for generating a believable language. As soon as this whole thesis insanity is gone, I will be picking this up for use with SoZ. You can look here and here for an inside peak at this book. (Keep in mind that those are draft snippets, but the heart of the content will still be in the final product.) I will be posting a more intense review as soon as I can.

By the way, if you'd like to make a buck or two in support of some great writing resources and excellent e-fiction, read this. Sure, I'd like you to join up for the affiliate program by following the "KHazell" link, but I'm willing to share the love and give you a choice of Holly's list there.

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