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        Welcome to the Freespace Story Archive’s Writers Workshop.  Through a series of articles, I, the Eishtmo, hope to give you a better idea of how to write a story, and how to make it a cut above the rest.  It takes a lot of work, but if you love to write, it’ll be worth it.

        First of all, I need to lay down the very first, and most important, rule of writing:  No matter what I say, write like you want to write.  No one, not even me, can tell you how to write.  I can, and will, give you tips, tricks, and things that have worked for me, but none of them may work for you.  All people have a different style and idea of what a good book is.  Your opinions will very likely differ from mine, but if you ignore others opinions, then you’re an idiot, and you’re probably not reading this anyway.

        Now that I’ve alienated my entire reader base, on with a few other things I don’t like and will bitch about constantly.  Some of them are for Freespace stories specifically, others are for all stories in general.  Since this is a Freespace site, chances are good you will write a Freespace story (if you write one of course), so all of these apply to you.  Note, you could violate every one of my pet peeves and still write one of the best stories ever, so don’t worry about these too much.  Alright, here we go:

        1)  Bosch.  I hate it when people try to place Bosch in their stories.  It’s not because I don’t like Bosch, far from it.  My problem is people spoiling the original character.  Now, some stories, like Rake’s Beyond Laramis, manage to use Bosch somewhat effectively, but it doesn’t always work.  I suggest you avoid Bosch at all costs, at least until we know the rest of the story.

        2)  Shivans jumping to Sol.  Defiantly my most hated concept.  The idea that the Shivans used the destruction of Capella to jump to Sol is, in my eyes, ludicrous.  So far, only one story I’ve seen, Eric Tramels’ Tale of the Armigrad, has used this plot device, and I am very thankful of that.

        3)  Bulk descriptions.  This is when the entire life, or backstory, is given away in a single paragraph.  This is very annoying, and nearly everyone does it.  You can even say that I did it as well, but I don’t go to the same extreme as others.  I’ll tell you how to fix this later.

        4)  NOT using the word ‘said.’  I know, I know, you’re sick of seeing this word, but for pete’s sake, use it so we can tell who’s talking already.  The worlds biggest offender of this is the classic Freespace story, Leader for the Shivans.  That’s right, James Moores sucks when it comes to writing who says what.  He’s gotten better recently, but he still does it way to much.

        5)  Ship captains who fly fighters.  Give me a break!  How often did Kirk take off in a small, cramped fighter to kick Klingon ass.  Okay, so maybe that’s a bad example, but you get the idea.

        6)  Spelling and grammar.  In today’s age of spell checkers, no one should have story that’s misspelled.  Also, if it doesn’t sound right when you read it, than maybe, just maybe, it’s wrong.  At the very least, read the story before you read submit it, okay?

        Well, that’s all I can think of now.  As I come across more, I’ll complain, but I’ll complain about these the most.  I also have a habit of jumping around a bit, sorry ahead of time.  Also, I am not an expert, so don’t take any of this as dogma to follow without question.

        Anyways, with the Writers Workshop, I hope to make you better writers, if nothing else.  So have a read through, and maybe you’ll come out a better author.  Or just sleepy, whichever.

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