To celebrate the return of Game of Thrones this Sunday, here’s a gif of my beloved Prince Oberyn (Pedro Pascal) annihilating assorted plates of food. There’s more where that came from. I have not yet recovered from his fate. I may never.

This week, we focus on writer and writing-related annihilations.

• “That’s not writing, that’s typing.” After reading these legendary author insults, all I can say is dayum.
• If you’ve ever felt annihilated by a similar critique or review, feel free to share these tips on How To Give Constructive Writing Criticism (That Actually Helps) with the offending party.
• And when the attack is on writer’s block or a plot hole, consider these Four Questions To Ask When Your Writing Is Stuck.
• A story trope “can be a plot trick, a setup, a narrative structure, a character type, a linguistic idiom… you know it when you see it. Tropes are not inherently disruptive to a story; however, when the trope itself becomes intrusive, distracting the viewer rather than serving as shorthand, it has become a cliché.” Check out these handy story trope bingo cards by genre to see if there are some tropes you should kill in your work in progress.
• Lucky? Yeah, right. One author outlines all the ways that her “luck” led to her success. Hint: Luck = lots of work.

Programming note:

Dead Darlings may experience some brief downtime on Sunday. We’re getting a spiffy facelift that also includes better categorization of content, easy reading fonts, and other things that only matter to those of us behind the machine.