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…
Outlining. It’s one of those touchy subjects among writers—should you outline your story or not? But like my recent post “Are You Crippling Your Creativity?” there is a certain misconception about outlines many beginning writers have that I hope to dispel today. Most of us grew up being taught the traditional outline.
When you get right down to it the major goal of the fiction writer is to keep the reader reading. And like the performer who spins plates at the top of a stick, writers must spin several plates too—characters and character arc, plot and plot development, conflict, dialog, show vs. tell, and pacing. If we focus…
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…
What was the big bad wolf’s goal in the story of the 3 little pigs? To have dinner. He needed to eat and the 3 pigs met the bill. The wolf was doing what came naturally to him. There was nothing evil about eating the pigs, but of course to the pigs, who stood to…
As writers we know we have to hook our reader at the onset — no matter what it is we’re writing. But as novelists, the opening act of our story needs to accomplish six tasks to keep our readers interested and wanting to know what’s just around the bend. For the next several Tuesday Writing…
Is it possible to sell a story that is high on action and adventure, but has flat characters? Yes, though it isn’t easy. What about a story that is flat on plot, but rich with three-dimensional characters? If your plot is flat, your reader (and that agent or publisher) has no reason to turn the pages….
Take a look at the picture above. What’s the first thing that comes into your mind? Danger? A bygone era? What ever your thought was, the fact is the picture triggered that thought. That is the creativity of your mind in action. Now think about how you can use what’s in this photo in your work in…