Writing an action scene isn’t as easy as it sounds sometimes. Take the fight scene, for example. It’s not enough to write “He punched the man in the face.” Your […]
writing
Writing Good Action Scenes
Good actions scenes can be tricky. You want to show enough of the action to give a vivid image, but not get bogged down in description. To start with, you […]
Short-Short: The Snowflake Method
THIS is a great article on writing a novel by building it up like a snowflake.
Story/Character Arc
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]