Editing is deconstruction and reduction; it’s creation by negation. It’s a completely different skill from the invention of story. Yet the modern author is expected to be their own editor. We must pick apart what we have spent months painstakingly assembling and say…no, never mind—not this, not that, this sentence is good, that one is…
A friend recently recommended I check out Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style, which I took as a not-so-subtle hint about my writing. This didn’t surprise me; clarity is one of the biggest problems facing any author. Despite the renown directive “write what you know”, we writers, being at least as…
Editor’s note (Margaret Duarte): There has been a recent buzz around the genre of Visionary Fiction, mainly due to the efforts of Visionary Fiction Alliance. However, a person new to the scene claims to have coined the term and has inserted restrictive content into the definition that goes against all Visionary Fiction Alliance stands for:…
In the first article introducing Meta-Visionary Fiction two weeks ago, we briefly presented the multiple facets of Meta-Visionary Fiction and how its precepts were initially applied in Genesis Antarctica (GA) and now fully developed in Revelation Antarctica (RA). The concept behind the genre is to create works that are “as real as you need them…
As authors of Visionary Fiction, we all have our own take on the genre and how we go about enriching it with our own particular approach. However, all of these share a common purpose to go beyond mere “entertainment” and its various mind-numbing manifestations. This is writing with a purpose, designed to expand readers’ consciousness…
In part one of the dystopian book series, we discussed how tales like 1984 raised our collective consciousness to the horrors of totalitarian systems. If that’s true, why is it difficult for us to join together and articulate current events to lessons we’ve learned from the book? In my mid-twenties, I had the realization that…
I’ve seen a meme floating around on Facebook of a Euler diagram linking together a host of dystopian movies and novels to an ominous undisclosed location. It started popping up during the start of the pandemic. Comments about the meme varied, yet I got the sense that those who responded were bound together by a…
His insight, description, and understanding of the lower, middle, and upper worlds is awe inspiring. While the novel is somewhat informational in the beginning, it amps up with adventure and intrigue
Fairy tales and memoirs share some common elements. They can develop reflective narratives for understanding the world we live in. They can explore the good and evil aspects of ourselves and others. Fairy tales and memoirs can express common emotions and universal experiences, and they can impart wisdom and deliver important messages. Both fairy tales…
Readers would be forgiven for thinking the book was crafted by seasoned writers. While technically written for young adults it reads like a literary novel. Descriptions of the gardens
Visionary Fiction entertains, which is, after all, the main purpose of fiction as a literary form. But visionary fiction goes one step further; it nourishes the mind. Not all visionary fiction, though, nourishes the mind in the same way. Some novels in this category are profound and literary, others deceptively simple and straightforward. Visionary novels…
Editor’s note: This is a reprint of an enlightening article written from the heart by Mitchell Davis about his love of books and independent publishing. He is best known as the founder of BookSurge, the first publishing platform for print-on-demand books that was eventually sold to Amazon and became CreateSpace. Mitchell continues to pursue his…
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the February 2020 issue of Mind Body Spirit under the topic of Visionary Fiction. Reprinted with permission. Ancient Hindu literature is filled with tales of avatars born totally awakened. In The Aitareya Upanishad (translation Eknath Easwaran), a passage reads, “The sage Vamadeva declared of old: ‘While dwelling in…
Is There a Right Use of Deadly Force? This is the thorny question I took up in my new release Assassin Awakens. I’ve always loved spy stories and am a special fan of Jason Bourne films and other such characters. So, that’s one reason I wrote this new book. But there’s more. My paternal ancestors…
Remember when you freaked out because your Mom washed your lucky shirt just before the big game? You swore at her, maybe said you wished you had a different mother. Of course it wasn’t about the shirt at all, you were afraid of losing the game. Your mom knew that, and loved you anyway. Maybe…
I am self-isolating, staying at home with my husband and our cats. I am isolated at home but feeling a deep connection with every other person in our world going through the pandemic, having their own experience, their own struggles, their own fears, maybe even points of joy and love and rediscovery. We are in…
I write Visionary Fiction. It’s my passion. I published an article defining it in Writers Journal, May 2009, hoping to promote the relatively unknown genre. In November, 2011, I posted a link to my article on the Goodreads page for the Visionary Fiction Group. From that Goodreads post emerged a small network of author colleagues…
We are pleased to announce that the publication of Brad Swift’s excerpt from his novel is both the first post at our new site, and also the 300th VFA article since we started it all way back in 2012. Serendipity! Thank you to all our regular and guest writers for making this possible.
“I don’t write political fiction,” I told MyMu. “I’m strictly a science fiction or fantasy author.”
Editor’s note: This article (slightly edited here) was originally published at the VFA in November 2014, before the sequels to either Disney’s Maleficent or Frozen were made. Although visionary fiction often has magical and fantasy elements in common with the fairy tales of old, the two differ in some fundamental respects. The themes of the conventional fairy…
Brad Swift (aka W. Bradford Swift and Orrin Jason Bradford) sold his veterinary practice in 1989 to pursue a dream to be an author and personal development coach. He and his wife were co-founders of the Life On Purpose Institute during which Swift wrote the Life On Purpose series that includes the award-nominated Life on…
I asked myself a question recently: Can a book of fiction make any significant difference in the real world in which we live? I didn’t get around to asking that question until after thirty years of being a professional author and having published a couple of dozen books. Still, my perspective on writing began to…
Ever since beginning to write while still a teenager (rather too many decades ago), the process was always very much a partnership. The concepts, frameworks and key elements seemed to appear unannounced. Sometimes at very inconvenient moments! In recent years, this phenomenon has become even more marked, particularly with the latest book which has taken…
The book blurb is also known as the description. It is the key to maximizing potential sales of your book. In the past, perusing book stores to discover the latest and greatest book to add to your collection was an experience unto itself. The atmosphere. The exploring. The smells. The displays. We’d pick up a…
One of Keanu Reeves’ best known movie franchises is also an unacknowledged visionary tale. Its heroes are thoroughly ordinary individuals who learn they are destined to change the future of humanity. The story touches on human potential, defeating a materialist and meaningless existence (as symbolised in a battle against artificial intelligence), and overcoming death. But…
Introduction I first felt compelled to write a book in 2002. It was originally conceived to be a memoir. That felt overwhelming. Writing seemed slow and laborious; frightened, I couldn’t begin. I’d identified as an architect and urban designer for decades. Drawings were my primary mode of communication. A professional editor suggested I write fiction….
During the writing of my novel, The Righteous One, my eighty-three year old father suddenly passed away. This heart-wrenching event shifted my intention from what started out as a lighthearted adventure story into an exploration of the connection between our physical body and our eternal consciousness or soul. The plot of The Righteous One focuses on…