A while back, I got asked about rearranging plot points. It was a difficult question to answer, because the usual definition of plot points seems to have hardened around the growing number of carefully described linear story structures. If that’s your definition of plot points, the answer
Read more →Let’s talk about setting for a minute. For purposes of this post, the setting is not just the physical location (geography, buildings, flora/fauna) of the story. It encompasses all that, plus things like the history, politics, culture, and customs of the people who live there. This can
Read more →One of the things I’m currently struggling with in my WIP is the pace and timing of various revelations—about the world, about various characters, about the past, about secrets deliberately kept by characters and secrets deliberately withheld by the author (me). When is the right time to
Read more →One of the writing terms that I’ve been hearing a lot lately is “the inciting incident,” which has become steadily more common over the past thirty years or so. Like a lot of the analytical approaches to writing, I think it is much to easy to get
Read more →Revising is one of those things that some writers love and others hate. There are various reasons for this. Writers who love it are usually the ones that find fixing things easier than making them up. Writers who hate it come in a lot of varieties: the
Read more →In the writing field, people who “just sit down and write” are named pantsers (as in, writing by the seat of their pants), in contrast to planners, who supposedly write bucketfuls of notes beforehand. Reality, in my experience, is a bit different. First off, in my experience
Read more →This past week has been quite a roller coaster. First I received news that Jane Yolen, who has been a friend and role model since the very beginning of my writing career, passed away on June 11. She was amazing in so many different areas of her
Read more →I ran across a place the other day that had a free “how to prepare for writing your novel” worksheet. Since I’m starting a new novel and I’m always curious about this stuff, I downloaded it on a whim. The worksheet turns out to be a list
Read more →It’s another open mike/mic day. Talk about whatever you want–questions, answers, updates on current work, vacation plans, whatever. I’m getting started on a completely new thing. It’s complicated and has…a lot more backstory than usual. I’ve had to do a lot more worldbuilding and planning than usual,
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