In many ways, stories are a balancing act, and the balance point for every story depends on exactly what the author is juggling and how much of whatever-it-is they have to keep in the air. A guy riding a unicycle is a balancing act, but so is
Read more →For purposes of this post, I’m defining “the writing process” as “how people go about getting words on the page.” Not getting ideas, not developing them, not laying down plot or characterization, though all of those things are involved or affected by process. (Writing is a massive
Read more →Happy 2023, everybody! It’s a new year, and this is when nearly everybody (including me) takes at least a few minutes to think about what they want to get done in the coming year. “Write a book” is a perennial favorite. So I thought I’d try to
Read more →It has recently occurred to me that the real problem with writing a novel—or with giving advice about writing a novel—is that writing a novel is a lot like inventing cold fusion. No one in the world has ever invented cold fusion. People have invented a lot
Read more →Understanding how stories work improves one’s ability to put them together better. What many people don’t get is that “understanding” can be intuitive as well as—or instead of—analytical/intellectual. Both ways of understanding are subject to error. The “gut feel” that X is the right thing to do
Read more →I’ve been plot-noodling with a couple of primarily character-centered writers lately, and I’ve noticed that they both have a similar problem. Most of the time, they don’t even see the places where they are dropping plot-hints…and when they do see them, they don’t immediately recognize them. One
Read more →Edited to reformat for readability, per Deep Lurker’s suggestion. This is my version of how-I-develop-it-into-a-scene when I’m having particular trouble. In this case, I started with a conversation “sketch draft” with minimal movement. There are four characters present: Archie, the 15-year-old POV; Del, aged 10; and Harkawn
Read more →Suggestion box: Could we have a post on moving characters around in a scene?…I struggle with how much detail to include on movement and on background. I don’t remember who described a scene as having naked characters sitting on clouds, but that’s about where many of mine
Read more →Human beings are hardwired to notice what’s wrong. Historically, it was a lot more important to spot the tiger hiding in the bushes than it was to pick out the antelope grazing down the hill, because the tiger was a more immediate threat. Missing the antelope meant
Read more →I spent last weekend at a steampunk convention as one of their author guests (I was supposed to be there in 2020, but…). It was the first time I’ve gone to a con since 2019, and it was refreshing, in spite of my various travel glitches (I
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