As you may be aware, we’re smack dab in the middle of a series of posts on writing a character’s pain, and today's is a doozy. Our last post explored common minor injuries your character might encounter and the pain associated with those. Today, we’re leveling up to discuss the severe and even fatal … [Read more...] about Writing about Pain: Describing Major & Mortal Injuries
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Writing About Pain: Three Stages of Awareness
If there's one thing writers like to do, it's to make characters suffer. We are all about bringing forth pain and crises, whether it be emotional, physical, spiritual, or existential. Is it because we're a little messed up and we enjoy torturing characters? Or do we create difficult scenarios in our … [Read more...] about Writing About Pain: Three Stages of Awareness
How to Stay Focused on Your Story’s Central Conflict
Conflict in every scene. We’ve all heard this advice, and for good reason. Your protagonist has a goal—hopefully, an audacious and high-stakes goal that is difficult to achieve. “Difficult” is important. It’s one of the qualities of a highly engaging story because the harder the goal is to reach, … [Read more...] about How to Stay Focused on Your Story’s Central Conflict
After the First Draft: Revising Your Plot
Ok, writers. Raise your hand if you love revising. *crickets* Revision freaks a lot of people out because it can be overwhelming. When you start drafting, you’ve got this really clear image of what the story should be, and by the time you type “The End,” it’s hardly recognizable. It’s a mess, … [Read more...] about After the First Draft: Revising Your Plot
Keep Tensions High by NOT Resolving Your Character’s Relationship Conflict
When it comes to story conflict, there are so many options to choose from. Power struggles, physical threats, moral dilemmas, failures, ticking clocks—they’re all great for ratcheting up tension, building reader empathy, and strengthening our plotlines. But the conflict we face most often as human … [Read more...] about Keep Tensions High by NOT Resolving Your Character’s Relationship Conflict
Do Your Characters Have Agency?
Consider, if you will, a story about a woman who wants to gain esteem by winning an important legal case. Things are going along fine until she gets fired from the firm for her unusual fact-finding practices. She ends up being forgiven and rehired, but her babysitter bails, leaving her with no one … [Read more...] about Do Your Characters Have Agency?
Adversarial Conflict: Who Is Making Trouble In Your Story?
Is there anything better than well-written conflict? The vengeful enemy, sharks circling a sinking boat, a carefully guarded secret getting out in the open. Readers, fearful for the characters they love, grip the book tighter when conflict is close. What will happen? Will everything be … [Read more...] about Adversarial Conflict: Who Is Making Trouble In Your Story?
Does Your Story Need a Hit of Organic Conflict? Look to Your Setting.
Every writer’s mission is to pen a story that draws readers in, offering familiarity when it comes to certain genre expectations while also delivering something fresh so to be distinctive and memorable. This is how to cultivate a loyal--and, fingers crossed, rabidly obsessed--reading … [Read more...] about Does Your Story Need a Hit of Organic Conflict? Look to Your Setting.
Fear Thesaurus Entry: Being Taken Advantage Of
Debilitating fears are a problem for everyone, an unfortunate part of the human experience. Whether they're a result of learned behavior as a child, are related to a mental health condition, or stem from a past wounding event, these fears influence a character's behaviors, habits, beliefs, and … [Read more...] about Fear Thesaurus Entry: Being Taken Advantage Of
Character Arcs: Making a Long Story Short
A well-structured story uses events (also called story beats) to move the narrative forward — with compelling issues, rising stakes, and an organic sense of cause and effect — toward a surprising-yet-inevitable resolution. At the same time, our story’s plot events force our characters to react, … [Read more...] about Character Arcs: Making a Long Story Short
Fear Thesaurus Entry: Conditional Love
Debilitating fears are a problem for everyone, an unfortunate part of the human experience. Whether they're a result of learned behavior as a child, are related to a mental health condition, or stem from a past wounding event, these fears influence a character's behaviors, habits, beliefs, and … [Read more...] about Fear Thesaurus Entry: Conditional Love
Fear Thesaurus Entry: Being Labeled
Debilitating fears are a problem for everyone, an unfortunate part of the human experience. Whether they're a result of learned behavior as a child, are related to a mental health condition, or stem from a past wounding event, these fears influence a character's behaviors, habits, beliefs, and … [Read more...] about Fear Thesaurus Entry: Being Labeled