The meat of any story is the scenes showing the conflicts and obstacles that the main character(s) face as they try to reach some sort of end point that they can be happy with, or satisfied by. Sometimes they have fully envisioned it, mapped every step it will take to get where or what theyContinueContinue reading “Writing through conflict”
Category Archives: Resource
The first turn
Note, while I discuss this as the inciting incident and not the beginning page of your story, several genres do begin their storytelling here, in medias res (in the midst of things). Trouble has found the main character. The normalcy of the character that you established in the beginning page is disrupted. The cop whoContinueContinue reading “The first turn”
More setting
Previously, I discussed the sensory details part of building your setting. Time (and season) Of course, that is not all that setting is. Setting is also the time (of day for scenes; season or year for stories) things are happening, too. Inasmuch as the weather or anniversaries or daily patterns impacts the character you shouldContinueContinue reading “More setting”
Setting up
To continue my previous topic of starting at the beginning with your stories, I’m going to talk today about setting up your setting. probably my favorite cartoon of all time, Snoopy spent decades trying to write his story. Setting is the place where your story takes place: New York, Paris, a loft in Soho, aContinueContinue reading “Setting up”
Plotting New Character Goals
Welcome back to my newsletter. As I mentioned in my last newsletter, my goal in 2025 is to post bi-monthly. No better time to start a new habit than right away. As in life, you do not have to set an arbitrary future date to make changes in your life. Small, incremental shifts “one stepContinueContinue reading “Plotting New Character Goals”
December 2024
Heads up! For 2025, I will be shifting to twice monthly posting. Hopefully this will mean I will be able to tag only one or two key ideas instead of half a dozen, making the posts easier to search for specific advice. I’ve been told I should write my stories with a theme. How doContinueContinue reading “December 2024”
Why should you hire a professional proofreader?
Check out this popular meme: Did you catch the error? Between the image and the text font, you might have missed the fact that the word overlaying the lemon is actually “melons”, a transposition of the “l” and the “m”. Happens to all of us. But your brain can trick you into missing errors likeContinueContinue reading “Why should you hire a professional proofreader?”
Finding Readers (and buyers!)
In writing last week about creating your book blurb, I mentioned that having this information will come in handy when writing query letters. But perhaps you already decided to self-publish and figured you could skip that. Don’t. Finding readers (and buyers!) – whether they are acquisition editors at a traditional publisher or readers who enjoyContinueContinue reading “Finding Readers (and buyers!)”
Writing a Book Blurb
In November, you probably wrote madly and got a lot of words down for the story of your dreams. You now have to take a step back and figure out what it is you’ve got. If you don’t know what you have, you’re not likely to get very far trying to fix it. In myContinueContinue reading “Writing a Book Blurb”
Individualizing characters
This is the last one where I’ll suggest you bookmark and come back if you’re NaNo-ing. Good luck as you finish! This is my last post on broadly editing the story you’ve written. This is not the end of such self-editing, but I feel like it’s important to thoroughly check your story’s structural pieces -ContinueContinue reading “Individualizing characters”
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