The other day I ran across an article on writing scenes, and the very first tip in it was “stick to one viewpoint per scene.” Based on context, the writer meant “stick to one viewpoint character per scene,” because it is rare for a writer to switch
Read more →There’s a scene in the Great Muppet Caper in which Lady Holiday, while interviewing Miss Piggy for a receptionist job, tells her a lot of personal information about her family relationships and the valuable jewelry (the Baseball Diamond…) she is going to put on display. When Miss
Read more →Twenty-some years ago, I was observing a break-out session at a writer’s conference (there were four scheduled during the day, following the keynote speaker; those of us who’d been brought in to do the break-out sessions were asked to do three, and had the option to sit
Read more →Like setup and foreshadowing (see last week’s post), payoff and consequences aren’t quite the same thing. If you look up the definitions, the writing-relevant one for “payoff” is “a final outcome or conclusion,” while the one for “consequences” is “the result or effect of an action or
Read more →Foreshadowing and setup aren’t quite the same thing, though they’re often talked about as if they were. The same thing happens with payoff and consequences. Each pair has a lot of things in common, and sometimes the same event or bit of information can act as both
Read more →Famous last words: “I’m going to write something stretchy.” Good for you. Now, what do you mean by “something stretchy,” and exactly how are you going to do it? My definition of “something stretchy” is something I’m not sure I know how to do, and that I’m
Read more →Fiction writers, especially those who write science fiction and fantasy, are fond of asserting that the best of them ask the hard questions about life and the world. This is, by and large, a good thing in general. The problem comes when it gets down to specifics.
Read more →Happy New Year! Traditionally, no matter how or when it is marked, a new year means a fresh start: cleaning out the old, revving up the new, and getting the stuff that’s stalled a kick in the pants. Depending on where one is in life, this can
Read more →Holidays are part of every human culture we currently know about, going back as far as we have records. There are a few that are nearly universal – planting and harvest festivals, solstices, equinoxes. Unsurprisingly, these tend to be based around natural cycles of the sun or
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