Plot layers

First, I have to apologize for this being late. There was a huge thunderstorm Monday night that knocked out my power and internet, and while the power came back quickly, it screwed up my router, which meant lots of fiddling around, and I didn’t get everything put

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Why Chapters?

Why do novels have chapters, and how do you figure out where to start or end them? Well, not all novels do have chapters ( see most of Terry Pratchett’s books and John M. Ford’s Growing Up Weightless for example). Most do, though, and have since the

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The Driver’s Seat

Since before the Internet began, it seems, there’s been an ongoing argument about “plot-driven” stories vs. “character-driven” stories. By this time, there are a metric ton of how-to-write articles arguing that one is “better” than the other. And all those scare quotes are there because everybody in

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Mythcon and Me

I spent last weekend mostly at Mythcon 2024, the annual convention of the Mythopoeic Society. It’s held in a different place every year, and this year, that place was Minneapolis. We regularly have a multitude of SF-style conventions here (including, but not limited to, Fourth Street Fantasy,

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