What are anachronisms? Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online Dictionary defines anachronism as: “a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present.” Anachronisms tend to occur primarily in historical fiction. It happens for various reasons, one of which is the writer failed to…
In writing book 3 of my Her Inheritance trilogy, I learned how NOT to write a book…at least for me. Hat’s off to pantsers because I think my recent experience comes pretty close to writing by the seat of my pants. How NOT to Write a Book
Omniscient point of view, the god-like view where the narrator knows all/sees all, has plagued me for a long time. I just couldn’t quite grasp how to write it. Omniscient was the POV of nineteenth-century books. Later, as third-person limited came on the scene, omni-POV fell out of favor with publishers. I hear that it…
Outlining a novel is quite different from nonfiction. And maybe you’ve heard the terms plotter and pantser. A plotter is one who outlines. A pantser is someone who writes by the seat of their pants—without an outline. I think most writers (fiction and nonfiction) tend to do a bit of both. I fall into that…
While worded in various ways, many of my readers stated they struggle with structuring their book, aka developing a plot. So, let’s take a look. (I’ll cover structuring nonfiction next month.) I’ve written various posts on this topic throughout the years, and you’ll find links to several of those posts listed at the end. Why…
Updated October 12, 2020 Last time we looked at scenes and how to build them. Most writers don’t have trouble writing scenes, and moving from scene to scene can be accomplished with as simple a statement as “Later that day…” However, there are times when you want to provide your reader with more. The sequel…
Updated September 14, 2020. In my last post we looked at plot. Today we’ll look at working with scenes. What goes into a scene? All the same things that go into plot. Think of a scene like a mini plot. The character(s) has a goal, which represents a small step in achieving the story goal….
Without unforgettable characters in a story, do you lose interest? I do. But how do you create these characters? Today begins a series on that topic. Let’s get real, whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, we want to connect with story characters. We want to discover something about them that we share–their life goals,…