Want to Show Your Character’s Pain? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
Want to Show Your Character’s Pain? Here’s Everything You Need to Know
For the better part of two months, Becca and I have been exploring pain, and how to write about it in fiction. It’s been enlightening for us, and we hope…
Read more…Writing About Emotional Trauma Without Triggering Readers
Writing About Emotional Trauma Without Triggering Readers
Trigger warnings are often debated in the writing world. Some opine that readers should be warned if something potentially harmful is included in a book, and others feel the audience…
Read more…Getting Back in the Writing Flow
Getting Back in the Writing Flow
We all need down time in our writing lives—a planned vacation, Christmas with the family, a buffer between big projects. Sometimes we get down time whether we’ve chosen it or…
Read more…Fear Thesaurus Entry: Physical Pain
Fear Thesaurus Entry: Physical Pain
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…
Read more…3 Action-Reaction Misfires That Flatten Your Writing
3 Action-Reaction Misfires That Flatten Your Writing
Cause and effect. Stimulus and response. Action and reaction. Everything in a story depends on what the characters do about whatever the story pushes them up against. Stiff, disconnected, or…
Read more…Writing Antagonists Readers Can’t Help But Like
Writing Antagonists Readers Can’t Help But Like
There’s a dirty little secret among many of us readers: well-written antagonists get our blood pumping. When a scene come along with them in it, well, we lean closer. Grin…
Read more…The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: Pain
The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus: Pain
DESCRIPTION: While there are different kinds of discomfort a character could suffer, this entry focuses on physical pain, which is most often associated with an injury or illness. For discomfort…
Read more…Using Physical Pain to Show a Character’s Past Trauma
Using Physical Pain to Show a Character’s Past Trauma
There doesn’t seem to be much info out there to tell writers how to realistically capture emotions and trauma while still leaving room for plot, characterization, and genre tropes. The…
Read more…A Mother Lode of Resources on Writing Conflict
A Mother Lode of Resources on Writing Conflict
With the recent release of the 2nd Volume of The Conflict Thesaurus, Angela and I have been here, there, and everywhere, sharing everything we’ve learned about what conflict can do…
Read more…Want Success? Get Back to Joyous Writing
Want Success? Get Back to Joyous Writing
By James Scott Bell “Things were tough at the moment. I hadn’t worked in a studio for a long time. So I sat there, grinding out original stories, two a…
Read more…4 Tips for Writing Your Character’s PTSD and Trauma Memories
4 Tips for Writing Your Character’s PTSD and Trauma Memories
Trauma: any event that overwhelms our ability to cope, causes feelings of helplessness, and diminishes our ability to feel a full range of emotions. Anything can be traumatic depending on the…
Read more…Writing Process vs. Product: Do You Focus on the Doing or the Having?
Writing Process vs. Product: Do You Focus on the Doing or the Having?
Which is more important—the process of writing or the product that results? It’s not something we think much about, but as creatives, one of these two things is typically motivating…
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