Category: Writing Advice

My latest column: Pulp Fiction

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This is my latest column from the Saskatchewan Writers Guild magazine Freelance, with extra graphics! Mention “pulp fiction” these days and most people probably think of the 1994 Quentin Tarintino movie. But of course the movie’s title referenced something much earlier: fiction literally published on pulp—cheap paper made directly from wood-pulp. Pulp paper quickly turns …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.ecblake.com/2017/10/my-latest-column-pulp-fiction/

How to Write Young Adult Fantasy: More Story, Less Pretentiousness

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A little while ago I gave a talk at the offices of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild for the Saskatchewan chapter of CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers (that’s their logo at left). This is more or less what I said. I didn’t start out as a writer. Like most writers, I started out as a reader. My parents …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.ecblake.com/2016/08/how-to-write-young-adult-fantasy-more-story-less-pretentiousness/

Great video about the best genre literary conference anywhere: When Words Collide

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Here’s a great video about the best genre literary convention in North America and probably the world: Calgary’s When Words Collide. If you’re interested in writing, you owe it to yourself to get to When Words Collide. My “other” name (Edward Willett) gets mentioned about halfway through this video as an example of the kinds …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.ecblake.com/2014/10/great-video-about-the-best-genre-literary-conference-anywhere-when-words-collide/

In defence of escapism

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Here’s my latest “Space-Time Continuum” column from Freelance, the newsletter of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild… Back at Weyburn Junior High I was once taken to task by a teacher for not remembering the name of the author of a book I liked. “If you don’t remember the author’s name,” he told me, “you’re just reading for escape.”  …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.ecblake.com/2014/04/in-defence-of-escapism/

Reality in fantasy

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Every two months I write a column (as Edward Willett) for the Saskatchewan Writers Guild‘s magazine Freelance. Here’s the latest, on grounding your fantasy fiction in reality. *** When someone writes a hardboiled police procedural novel, we expect it to adhere to correct police procedures in the city in which it is set. When someone …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.ecblake.com/2014/02/reality-in-fantasy/