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In a change of pace from our usual promotion of writing well, I'd like to look at the art of writing very, very badly. Because producing a truly awful piece of prose, instead of merely mediocre, boring, or poorly spelled, takes no small amount of effort. Witness the witty horrors that are the Bulwer-Lytton contest winners and runners-up.

This is a whole new level of writing badly, well beyond a mere lack of knowledge of spelling, grammar, and other useful mechanics.

Sure, you can learn it from textbooks and long dead masters, but if you want to write right, right now, you need to listen to the cocky bastard.

I have decided to approach working on my novel, God Like Me, in much the same way that I approach most other things in life: learn how it Should Be Done, then do it as I please.

So forget all of those books that tell you to hide yourself away in a hermetically sealed chamber until the First Draft emerges...this is the era of the net, of collaboration and sharing. Will you join me in a game of Help Mike Plot His Novel?

Perspective is more than just a question of writing style. It is a question of power. Should you be the omniscient god, knowing every thought that runs through your characters' heads? Or should you confine the narrator's knowledge to what only she knows, thus focusing on a more intimate subset of the story? The answer may vary by writer, or it may vary by story. Either way, it is a decision that must be made even before you can begin to plot your story.

In a story, everybody has a "cause" - something they want to get, to do, to find, to stop. Not all of these causes are relevant to the plot, but they are there nonetheless.

In the case of the protagonist and antagonist, one of the defining characteristics of their respective causes is that they are conflicting: for one to succeed, the other must fail. But when the antagonist has no reason beyond the dictates of the plot to oppose the protagonist, their conflict - and the story - weakens.

Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig is a clear look at copyright law, how technology is affecting it both technically and in people's perceptions, the current trend in legal responses to the technology, and how it affects the artists and authors in the world. Lessig is uniquely qualified to write such a book, because he is a professor of law, a computer geek, an author, and an activist in the field of copyright and creativity.

The book is of necessity extremely focused on U.S. copyright law, and U.S. legal history (and British legal history before that), since that is the legal system Lessig works with. The U.S. is also where many of the high-profile copyright lawsuits are taking place. Given the influence of the U.S. on other countries, however, I was very interested, even as a Canadian, to read this book. If nothing else, it can be taken as a warning to other countries.

This review is primarily intended to inform us as authors about the state of copyright, since there is a lot of misinformation about copyright law available, whether posted intentionally or not.

Science writing has evolved quite a bit from such speculative fiction masters as Philip K. Dick and Ray Bradbury and the stories they wrote long ago. While I still read their stories adamantly, I tend to think that writing more from a Science perspective, where fact is more important than imagination, is becoming increasingly harder, and more important, as mainstream media makes concepts like Quantum Physics, Criminal Forensics etc. available to the masses.

This issue of the Write On! site news includes site updates, layout, and images, as well as several requests for comments on different aspects of the site.

Also, apologies to the new members who created accounts then tried to set their user info - that was broken on the last update, but it's fixed now. Go set your user info.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, at their most expensive. The most common answer to "Where do you get all your ideas?", a question most prolific authors get all the time, is usually along the lines of "everywhere", or for a humorous spin, "how do you ignore all the ideas around you?"

But ideas, while necessary to a story, are not sufficient. Developing the ideas that can be found anywhere into an interesting story, with plot and character and conflict and resolution, is the next step.

This article won't give you a fool-proof method for making an idea seed grow into a good story. It will, however, provide some suggestions on how to work with that initial idea and develop it into something more, using one of a few brainstorming techniques.

I'm currently writing a story that made use of a pop culture reference (Seinfeld). The story is quite serious and this is the only references I made to pop culture which caused me to realize that it wasn't really needed at all. Perhaps if I were writing a light hearted story about modern life, with snappy dialogue and societal observations, then a pop reference would have made sense.

It is often said that, the best stories are those that retain a timeless quality, they aren't defined by the era they were written in. (even though period affects the sensibilities of the writer and their style) Not many of us will join the ranks of Wells, Twain or Dickens. And even thought it's easier to allow modern culture to slip into our writing, perhaps we can achieve our best when we hold ourselves to a higher standard as if we expect our work to be read by many generations to come.