StoryShop for Planning a Novel The beta version of StoryShop, an online application for building a story, is out. The aim of the application? Here’s what the creators have to say. The better you know your characters, your plot’s key points, and your world before you start writing, the better and faster the story will pour…
Celebrate Electronic Reading Smashwords presents Read an E-Book Week, March 5 – 11, 2017. The Used Virgin is just one book among thousands participating. Grab your free copy and join in the celebration. Mark Coker, Smashwords founder, interviews the Read an E-Book Week creator Rita Toews. For one week each year, Rita Toews, 61, a soft-spoken…
Find The Victim’s Secrets in Your Mystery The victim is a strategic character in your mystery. Spend just as much time developing this character as you do your protagonist and the villain. Even though your victim is dead or soon dead, they are the character around whom the story revolves. The crime against the victim…
Derek Pacifico conducting Homicide School for Writers Real Cop Details in Your Fictional World Unless you have worked in law enforcement, writing realistic cops for your mystery involves getting to know law, law enforcement procedures, and a realistic picture of how cops think, act, and work. Reading and online research will give you a general…
Factions for a Time Today football (soccer) fans go wild in the street causing disruption, injury, and even death. Every era has its fanatics. In the time of Theoderic religious interpretations of the nature of Christ caused the same kind of eruptions. My favorite fictional description is from Lest Darkness Fall by L. Sprague deCamp, a…
How to create a great protagonist, smooth dialogue, keep readers engaged, and trim info-dump to write a novel readers love.
