A long time ago, I attended a workshop in which the presenter asked us to write a one-page description of our ideal day. I couldn’t do it. I don’t have one “ideal” day that I’d be happy to repeat over and over—no matter how good a day
Read more →Happy almost-Halloween! For those of you who are going to be in Minneapolis between January 17 and February 2, 2025, I have an announcement—The Phoenix Theater (https://www.phoenixtheatermpls.org/) here is doing a production of Dealing with Dragons during that time. Tickets available at the link above. I love
Read more →There’s a recurring writing argument that revolves around which type(s) of viewpoint are “too easy” or “too hard” or problematic in some other way, such that writers (especially beginners, but when you look a little closer, it sounds a lot like “all writers”) should be discouraged from
Read more →One of the most common bits of writing advice is variously phrased as “Make the reader fall in love with your characters,” “Make your characters likeable,” “Make your characters sympathetic,” and, most generally, “Make the reader care about your characters.” There are three problems with this advice.
Read more →Basically, I’m experiencing three different kinds of Stuck with the three main stories I’m working on.—E. Beck Summary of Stuckness: Stuck because you don’t want to work on this story right now. Stuck because there’s a major time jump/transition to get over. Stuck because you are unsure
Read more →Found this in a batch of older questions: When one conveys descriptions, actions, or background information through dialogue, does it count as showing or telling? The short answer is, the writer is “showing” two characters in conversation. People in conversations are of course “telling” each other things;
Read more →The general consensus seemed to be that people wanted my stream-of-consciousness scene-developing example, so you’ll get that next week. In the meantime, here’s the technical post on moving characters around, that got interrupted because I can’t remember my own schedule for Open Mic days… Suggestion box: Could
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
Read more →For a lot of stories, the choice of viewpoint character seems obvious, either because the writer starts with a character and develops the plot later, or because they start with a plotline in which one particular character is at the center of the action. I said “seems
Read more →One way and another, a lot of pixels get used talking about making “well-rounded” or complex characters. I put “well-rounded” in scare quotes because it always makes me think of the advice I got in high school about being well-rounded – take many kinds of classes, try
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