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You've stepped into a place where you can relax for while and tune in to the other side of your brain. This is your haven to find something interesting to read, or to get some help with your writing.

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Established in 2004, HearWriteNow.com is the magazine website for writers, readers, and creative people of all types. It is run by Melbourne author, editor, and publisher Elle Carter Neal.

Featured Articles

Understanding the Basic Components of a Song

A woman holding a guitar and making notes on a sheet of paper

Do you want to try your hand at writing a song, or putting your poetry to music? Here are some explanations of basic song structure to help you.

A very basic song can consist of just verses and a chorus or refrain. In a slightly more complex song you will often find an introduction, the verses, chorus, a bridge, and a conclusion.

The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, reviewed by Elle Carter Neal

The Farseer Trilogy is the start of Robin Hobb's massive Elderling Realm series, which currently stands at 16 books (and is considered complete). The Farseer Trilogy is currently one of my favourite fantasy series. The dynamics between Robin Hobb’s characters are exquisite, especially in Book 3. Hobb’s attention to detail is brilliant, and she has created a vast world and characters with great depth.

Read my review of The Farseer Trilogy
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The Problem with Horror - a Critique of Fortitude

As a writer, and in the spirit of learning more about my craft (i.e., read everything, even the stuff you hate), I have read a lot of horror books, and I’ve watched a handful of Horror movies and TV shows. And then I watched Fortitude. And everything clicked in my brain. The perfect example of why the addition of Horror utterly destroys good—or even potentially great—fiction.

To understand what went wrong with a show with a really great premise and set-up, we need to go through it in fine detail – so thar be complete spoilers for Season 1 of Fortitude. You have been warned.

Read my Critique of Fortitude and how it demonstrates the biggest flaw of the Horror genre

The 36 Dramatic Situations (Plus One)

The 36 dramatic situations were compiled by Georges Polti in the 1800s based on the earlier work of Carlo Gozzi.

As you will see, these 36 dramatic situations are not complete plots. To create a plot, you need to combine at least two strands, but the more strands you weave together the more complex and interesting your story plot and subplots become.

A 37th situation is widely considered worth adding to this list, particularly since it appears as far back as Chaucer. It's included at the end of this article.

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