WARNING: A Facebook “fan page” for me has been hacked; we’re working on getting it fixed, but it is going to take time because I didn’t set the thing up myself. In the meantime, I’m told that scammers do this to try to get followers’ emails and
Read more →What is a “B” plot? Like most writing jargon, it depends on who you ask. On the most fundamental level, the A plot is the main storyline, the central problem that, once solved, means the story is over. The dragon is dead/tamed; the war is over; the
Read more →Curious about people’s thoughts on natural length. Mine seems to be the novella (first work was 26k and second is just under 50k) which is awkward for doing anything with in traditional publishing (and I am not cut out for self publishing). –Rose What do you do
Read more →Folk tales and fairy stories have been around for as long as people have. Specific details don’t always stay the same—there are over 300 versions of the story we mostly know as “Cinderella.” Some use a ring as identification, rather than a shoe; in others she attends
Read more →Some years back, I had a writer friend who’d switched from being a journalist to writing fiction. She told me once that for her, the hardest part of writing fiction was learning not to automatically apply the basic journalism tenet: “Tell them what you’re gonna tell them,
Read more →The character-driven story currently seems to be most people’s Platonic Ideal for fiction, especially when compared to the plot-driven story…and those are the only two options most writing advice and/or classes present to writers. It’s taken for granted that one of these things–characterization or plot–must inevitably take
Read more →A few years ago, I was talking to a businessperson at a family gathering, and I made a comment about my then-current work in process. He immediately assumed that my “project” (writing a book) would be “done” once the book was published and on the shelves for
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 →First, I have to apologize for this being late. There was a huge thunderstorm Monday night that knocked out my power and internet, and while the power came back quickly, it screwed up my router, which meant lots of fiddling around, and I didn’t get everything put
Read more →Since before the Internet began, it seems, there’s been an ongoing argument about “plot-driven” stories vs. “character-driven” stories. By this time, there are a metric ton of how-to-write articles arguing that one is “better” than the other. And all those scare quotes are there because everybody in
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