Last week we learned how to characterize wrong. The week before that we learned how to plot wrong. And today I’m going to teach you how to cripple your book so that—even if your plot is maximum overdrive and your characterization nothing short of brilliant—no one in the industry will… Read more“How to Write Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps”
Tag: Fiction Writing Advice
How to Characterize Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps
So we know how to plot wrong. Now this week let’s talk about how to handle character wrong. Because this one is trickier—character is a trickier element of fiction while, at the same time, an even more essential one than plot. It’s possible to get by on pretty darn thin… Read more“How to Characterize Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps”
How to Plot Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps
Can you believe it’s June already? You’d never know it from the weather on the Northern California Coast. It’s been pouring rain for days. It’s practically the Pacific Northwest. So I’m going to spend the month of June talking about how to do everything backward. And I’m going to need… Read more“How to Plot Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps”
3 Reasons Dialog is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not
We’re talking about the pros and cons of the three aspects of scenes: description, action, dialog. Now, as we all know, dialog is the mainstay of modern fiction. Raised in a world of television, radio, and telephones, we as an industrialized race are familiar with nothing if not the power… Read more“3 Reasons Dialog is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not”
3 Reasons Action is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not
You know how everyone’s always telling you “Show, Don’t Tell”? Well, that means “Write Scenes, Not Exposition.” So we’re spending three weeks covering the three aspects of scenes: description, action, dialog. Last week we did description. Next week we’ll do dialog. And this week we’re doing action. Action is important… Read more“3 Reasons Action is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not”
3 Reasons Description is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not
This topic came from @__Deb, and it’s such a good idea I’m going to extrapolate from it for two more weeks, covering all three aspects of scene: description, action, dialog. “Show, Don’t Tell.” Write scenes, not exposition. Description is important because: Details create the life on the page If there… Read more“3 Reasons Description is Important, 3 Reasons It’s Not”
8 Ways NOT to Describe Your Main Character
This one, again, is thanks to @__Deb, who gave me my blog topics for the month of May. That girl’s just chock full of good ideas. (All wrapped up in hand-knitted sweaters.) I know you hear a lot of advice about making your protagonist heroic. Internally-conflicted. Easy for the reader… Read more“8 Ways NOT to Describe Your Main Character”
#editingchat 4/28/11
Once again, my sterling memory rewards me. That and the big ole note I wrote to myself last week. It’s #editingchat day again, people, today at noon Pacific Standard Time. (That’s 1:00 pm MST. 2:00 pm CST. 3:00 PM EST. And I believe 8:00 pm GST for those of you… Read more“#editingchat 4/28/11”
#editingchat 4/21/11
I remembered! May the heavens open and the angels sing. I remembered to tell you guys we’re holding #editingchat! Today at noon Pacific Standard Time on Twitter. You can go to that link and follow the conversation even if you don’t have a Twitter account (although you need to be… Read more“#editingchat 4/21/11”
We can’t leave fiction alone—Talking Prose
Last week, Roz Morris and I had the second of our four scheduled weekly editorial chats: Talking Character. The week before that we were Talking Plot. We’re running these chats here once a week throughout the month of April. We had great fun and talked about the very essence of… Read more“<em>We can’t leave fiction alone</em>—Talking Prose”