Stakes vs. consequences

Whether you’re struggling through a first draft, revising a completed manuscript, or composing a query letter, one of the more useful things you (or your prospective agent/editor) should probably know is what is at stake for the characters in your story. But what, exactly, does that mean?

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Audience, Pro and Con

One of the first things a lot of writers get told is to “think about your audience” or “imagine your ideal reader.” This is one of those balancing-act bits of advice. I personally think there are more down sides than up sides, but either way, the fact

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First novels Part 2-Prewriting

Once you’ve committed to the seed-crystal idea you’re going to turn into your first novel, you’ll have to develop it. (The commitment part is important. There will be some point—possibly more than one—in this process where everything you’ve written sounds stupid, clichéd, or just too frustrating to

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Merry Christmas and Happy Hanuka

Happy holidays to everybody. Christmas and Hanuka’s first night both fall on a Wednesday this year, so I felt a more specific wish was appropriate. In the same spirit, I offer a link to one of my favorite poems of all time, John M. Ford’s Winter Solstice,

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Weaving in Context

Even in a novel that has a prologue, the writer will, at some point, need to get more context into the story somehow. (Most novels don’t need a prologue–see last week’s post–and those that do, don’t need the twenty-plus pages that would give the reader everything they might

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