Writers are highly distractable people. In part, this is because it always looks like more fun to chase the cool new story idea than to slog through the miserable middle of whatever one is currently writing. (Okay, it doesn’t just look like more fun…) In part, it’s
Read more →Once again, it is an Open Mic week! Chat amongst yourselves while I catch up on the 957 emails that have collected in my in-box…
Read more →The most common recommendations for increasing tension in a story are things like “raise the stakes, again and again,” “make sure your readers care about the characters/conflict,” “hold back information,” and “use cliffhangers.” The basic assumption seems to be that most writers have trouble putting their characters
Read more →One of the writer complaints I hear regularly about plotting is some variation on “I can’t come up with a plot that’s compelling for the reader. I can’t make the reader care about what happens to the characters. I can’t make the reader care about what’s at
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