The arc of a story is the overall plot of the whole thing – from exposition to denouement. The character arc is how the character changes within that story. Your […]
Month: January 2015
The Point of No Return
Conflict is a necessary part of any story. Without conflict and tension, you’ve got a boring description and no story. Along with conflict, though, you must have character reaction. If […]
Writing Basics: Style
Style is an elusive element of fiction. It’s something everyone has, but not many people can fully define. Your style is based on several things: diction, sentence structure, detail, literary […]
Brainstorming 101
One of a writer’s best tools is brainstorming. But how exactly do you brainstorm effectively? Here are some tips: When to brainstorm: whenever anything happens or whenever your character has […]
Short-Shorts: Story Grid Foolscap
HERE’S some excellent advice from the folks over at Story Grid.
4 Tips for Great Conflict
Conflict or tension is a necessary element of storytelling. Without conflict, you don’t have a story. First, let’s hop over to Merriam-Webster and define our terms: Fight, battle, war a […]
Introduce Your Characters
You’ve seen it too many times: the character posed in front of a mirror, examining himself or herself so that the reader will know what they look like. For cryin’ […]
4 Tips for Creating Subplots
A subplot is a plot within your main plot, one that affects the secondary character(s). Here are four basic points to keep in mind when creating a subplot: Is the character […]
Short-Shorts: 10 Common Blog Writing Mistakes
HERE’S a great little infographic from our friends at Where Writers Win.
Happy New Year
As 2015 begins, we as writers should take stock of our writing lives and make a few resolutions for our craft. Not the sort we don’t intend to keep, […]