Every one has emotional triggers – are you using this to increase the emotional tension in your story? What Does Your Character Think is Their Strength? What does your character pride themselves on having, being, doing, possessing, needing, controlling, etc? Do they rest their identity in any … [Read more...] about Identify Your Character’s Emotional Triggers
Search Results for: dialogue
Need Conflict? Just Let Your Characters Talk
Story conflict has many purposes. It provides opportunities for failure and growth, elevates what’s at stake, and escalates emotion for the character and readers. We also know that our stories will need many instances of conflict, both at the story (macro) and scene (micro) level. But how do we know … [Read more...] about Need Conflict? Just Let Your Characters Talk
Build a Character’s Voice from the Inside Out
Vocabulary and the way a character speaks are the outer layer of character voice—the icing on the cake. Instead of trying to build character voice from the outside in, get under the character’s skin by revealing how they experience and interpret the story world from the inside out. Character … [Read more...] about Build a Character’s Voice from the Inside Out
4 Ways Your Protagonist Is Sabotaging You (And How to Fight Back)
We love our protagonists. We spend a ridiculous amount of time, blood, sweat, and tears championing their stories. But what if they’re undermining us by behaving in ways that drive readers away? What if they’re not-so-secretly sabotaging us despite all our efforts to advocate for them? Let’s discuss … [Read more...] about 4 Ways Your Protagonist Is Sabotaging You (And How to Fight Back)
Six Tips for How to Write a Compelling Action Scene
By Emily Young Did you know that when you read a novel, your brain thinks you're experiencing the events? “The brain, it seems, does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life,” according to this article in The New York Times. No wonder we … [Read more...] about Six Tips for How to Write a Compelling Action Scene
Using Vocal Cues to Show Hidden Emotion
By Becca Puglisi Any Tolkien fans in the house? I remember, as a teen, reading The Hobbit by the fire on a rare cold evening in Florida. It became a favorite that I would re-read until my copy literally fell to pieces. One of my favorite scenes comes right at the beginning: the … [Read more...] about Using Vocal Cues to Show Hidden Emotion
Your Novel: Concept to Query in 10 Months
An Action Plan for Actual Humans By Fred Koehler Like almost every other writer I know, I’m not a full time novelist. Publishing is, at the best of times, really slow. In the meantime, kids need braces. Cars break down. The rent doesn't pay itself. And yet, through each of the last three … [Read more...] about Your Novel: Concept to Query in 10 Months
Stoking Your Story’s Fire: Three Considerations for Revising Scene by Scene
By David G. Brown The Two Pillars of Storytelling After my first couple years as a fiction editor, I realized that all of my developmental feedback for clients fit into one of two categories. The first is immersion: the quality of a narrative that transports readers to another time and place. … [Read more...] about Stoking Your Story’s Fire: Three Considerations for Revising Scene by Scene
Writing Magic in a Real-World Setting
By Liz Keller Whitehurst For centuries, people have been spellbound by magic and the supernatural. Ghosts, curses, talking creatures, portals to alternate dimensions…there's just too much creative fodder for authors not to plumb those depths. Over time, mainstream fantasy has given way to many … [Read more...] about Writing Magic in a Real-World Setting
Writers, Grab a Knife: How To Kill Your Darlings
Good writing involves rewriting. An essential part of rewriting is combing through the first draft and carving out material that isn’t essential. When we edit out nonessentials, we are killing our darlings. What is a Darling? Darlings are words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and even whole … [Read more...] about Writers, Grab a Knife: How To Kill Your Darlings
When Are You Ready for Professional Editing?
Many writers equate preparing for a professional edit with revision. We’ll cover a few revision tasks in this article, but revision is only half the battle. Preparing your manuscript is the first part of getting ready for editing. The second part is preparing yourself. Knowing when a manuscript … [Read more...] about When Are You Ready for Professional Editing?
The Art (and Importance) of Specifically Ambiguous Writing
By Harrison Demchick One of the cornerstones of effective writing is specific detail. Specific detail is what grounds the action of a scene in a tangible reality. It’s how we enable readers to see our characters and settings—and not only see them, but also hear, smell, taste, and touch them. When … [Read more...] about The Art (and Importance) of Specifically Ambiguous Writing