Issue #5 is here! Check out our Spotlight on The Tandem Region Times, plus an interview with its creator Nick Rayner. Also, take a gander at the latest craft essay, In the Name of a Hero.
Tandem Region Times is a rather unique form of horror, how did you go about constructing the feel of the writing for the site?
You start by saying “this needs to be as objective as possible.” When writing horror, it’s easy to start writing flowery prose and painting elaborate pictures. You need to suffocate that inclination. Once it’s gone, you can add some seasoning here and there, but always remembering that you’re describing this from the outside. When writing a news article, the idea is to get all the crucial information out right in the opening paragraph. Who, what, where, when, why. Read more here…
Your hero is poised to defeat the villain, save the kingdom, complete a quest or maybe he just wants to get through life. Maybe you’ve got your plot organized in an outline or you’re just going to start writing and explore where things go. But in order to flesh out your hero – and whatever other characters he or she encounters – you need to answer this question: what is your character’s name? Read more here…
Spotlight on The Tandem Region Times
What they are looking for: Strong, bizarre concepts. Tandem Region Times is an online horror-themed newspaper, so you need to write your story in a journalistic format, or as a review or a column or classifieds entry. If you have a very original concept and an image in your head, the narrative can be worked on. You almost tell the story backwards; you give the most important information at the start and work your way backward to the least important, but more colorful. Read more here…
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