This week you’ll be writing – short things that are part story, part summary, all background. This week is about setting the main character(s) in your mind. Turn them around and over and about in your hands to see them from all sides. You’re going to write a “now” story about the characters in November.ContinueContinue reading “Preptober week 3”
Tag Archives: writing
Recommended Reads: Setting
A conversation in a group prompted this one. Setting is more than just place. It’s also time period (and the things that can and can’t happen because technology), and the unique mores or manners required in a particular scenario at that time and place. If your character will be breaking these rules of behavior, thereContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Setting”
Recommended Reads: Point of View
Of all the tools in storytelling, point of view seems to be the most often bungled. An author says they’ve chosen omniscient POV, but what they’ve written is close third person POV with numerous errors. Or they wrote 3rd person POV from the MC’s perspective, but then when both the love interest and the MCContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Point of View”
Recommended Reads: Characters
Character development, or characterization, involves a lot of psychology, IMHO. Filling out character sheets lends itself to very stereotypical presentations. Joe Friday’s “just the facts, ma’am” comes to mind when I see them. They even look like rap sheets, IMHO – very off-putting. If you want full-bodied characters, you can’t boil them down to wordsContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Characters”
Recommended Reads: Plotting
I’ve been doing a great deal of developmental editing lately and that entails often pointing writers to examples or books that discuss strategies for whatever they’re struggling with. I thought I would share a few of my go-to reads for various kinds of writing help. Help for structuring your plot You know all the partsContinueContinue reading “Recommended Reads: Plotting”
Story building: tone
This is part 2 of 2 posts discussing pacing and tone, crucial elements of story building. Go here for a deep dive into pacing. Today’s topic: tone. What is tone? Narrative tone is the feelings created by the words the writer (or speaker) uses that surrounds and embeds itself into the story, giving it anContinueContinue reading “Story building: tone”
Story Building: Pacing
A story is considered complete if it contains complex vivid characters with goals moving in a setting described through all or at least many different types of sensory details, and the plot logically follows from an inciting incident, through several logical complications, reaching a climax, and settles many reader questions by the time the concludingContinueContinue reading “Story Building: Pacing”
Scene building: middles
Today we’re going to discuss building compelling “middles.” Between the beginning and the end, most of the story happens. Popularly, the “muddled middle” or “the slog,” this is the bulk of your story’s plot before the climax. After the climax is generally the shortest part of your story, tying up loose ends, and characters pattingContinueContinue reading “Scene building: middles”
Congratulations 2
Another wonderful bit of news from an editing client – and writing friend. Julie Ranson has accepted a contract with The Wild Rose Press to publish She Danced Anyway, an historical (1920s) women’s fiction novel. In 1920s New York, Elizabeth, 22, has just graduated college — without an “m-r-s” degree, much to her mother’s dismay.ContinueContinue reading “Congratulations 2”
Let Dialogue Speak for Itself
Is using “said” dialogue tags good or bad? What about using “snapped” “shouted” “whispered” or “questioned” or even the many adverbs often added to said, like “laconically” “dramatically” or “softly”? I’ve talked before about attributions in dialogue, so what I want to do today is drive home the idea of making your dialogue so sharp,ContinueContinue reading “Let Dialogue Speak for Itself”
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