Even though I read authors in my favorite genre, now and then I go to the library to find books by unfamiliar authors in genres I don’t usually read. After all, how would new authors ever make it to the best seller list? I’ve discovered some wonderful authors this way. And in all honesty, I…
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…
Updated August 2020 Many fiction writers struggle with what plot is and how to develop it, including me. We envision the end product and wonder how we’re going to get there. Some writers develop their plot through first writing outlines (called plotters); some write by the seat of their pants (called pantsers). But much like…
Lately, I’ve gotten a lot of manuscripts to edit with incorrect formatting. Using the standard format for your manuscript for submission to a publisher or freelance editor is important. Do it incorrectly and you immediately tell that publisher you’re an amateur. Yes, we all start at the beginning, but there’s no need to let the…
In last week’s “To Plot a Story,” guest Deborah Lyn Stanley stated, “A one-sentence premise is essential to a strong story.” Many writers may not understand what a premise is or how to arrive at that one-sentence, so let’s take a look at it today. In almost all of the books I have on the…
In recent months I’ve been stymied by my work in progress (WIP). Would I call it writer’s block? No. I was struggling to write because I simply didn’t know where the story was going. You see, I decided to take a short story I wrote for a college class a few years back and develop…
So, your work in progress takes place in the 1800s … or maybe it’s a contemporary story, but one that is set in a region of the country you’re unfamiliar with. You know you’ve got a lot of research to do to make your story accurate and credible, but where do you begin?
The first thing we as writers must accomplish with our story is to hook our reader. But if we merely hook them, the reader can get away. So we must also then compel them to read on to the middle and then right through to the end of our story. We spur our reader to the…