A long time ago, a would-be writer told me in all seriousness that the important things in writing were the action and the dialog. Things like description and setting were just window-dressing, things that were only important to “literary readers.” In the intervening years, visual media have
Read more →I recently read a story in which the writer had two villains whose respective plotlines had very different endings. One villain was heading for an action climax with a dramatic set-piece battle scene; the other was heading for an emotional confrontation ending in the revelation of all
Read more →Description in stories is fractal. No matter what the writer chooses to describe, there’s another level available if they want it. Describe a room: walls, floor, ceiling, furnishings. Describe the walls – stone or plaster, painted or natural, square or circular or irregular, empty or covered with
Read more →“How did you decide what viewpoint to use for your first novel?” I was more than a little bemused by the question, because that is one of many supposedly vital writing decisions that I don’t remember making, let alone angsting over the way the questioner obviously was.
Read more →Every time a writer sits down to write a story, they face a bunch of different demands and expectations from several different directions. A writer who is aware of these demands and where they’re coming from can usually make better conscious adjustments when the various demands and
Read more →It is, fortunately, time for another Open Mic! Speak amongst yourselves while I try to get my router fixed before it is time to post next week.
Read more →The idea that every character must have a goal and a motivation, not only for the overall story/plot but for each and every scene in that story, has always been something that I have had trouble with. That is, until I realized that my difficulty was due
Read more →I recently read a book that I found deeply frustrating because nearly all of the action-adventure part of the plot happened offstage. The viewpoint – who was consistently presented as the protagonist – only found out about the action later, when someone came back bloody and beaten
Read more →Every writer I know is a voracious reader, and has been for a long, long time. Most of us are omnivorous as well as voracious – we not only read a lot, we read widely, from literary classics to pulp fiction, and from every genre available. Reading
Read more →Every story has a central problem that the protagonist needs to deal with. Sometimes, the protagonist deals with it successfully; sometimes they fail. The problem may be something the protagonist doesn’t have but wants, something they need to do, something they need to realize, something they need
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