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Readers Want One Thing From a Scene – Change Scenes are the building blocks of your story. Each scene moves the story forward and shed a no light on the main character. Each scene is a mini-story with the same overall sequence as the main story—beginning, middle, end. Within that mini-story a change happens. …
Listening Is a Writer’s Best Dialogue Skill An emotional teenage girl, a befuddled oldster, a patronizing matron, and an Oxford don all speak differently. The fiction writer’s task is to convey their speech with idioms, syntax, vocabulary, and language. When does a character pause? Why does a character pause? Do they use run-on sentences? Speak…
Subplots in the Story Subplots add depth to your mystery story by giving readers a deeper vision of your protagonist, the detective. They can Add dimension to the main plot Test the protagonist’s motivation and ability to solve the puzzle Create different points of view on the central murder victim and suspects In a mystery,…
From Story Idea to Story Summary Once you create your one-sentence story idea, build out to a summary paragraph to include characters, main story points, and the climax. Expanding your story idea builds your story writing momentum. Years ago Randy Ingermanson proposed a way to summarize your story highlighting the important pivots: three disasters plus…
Harness Your Story Idea to Write a Better Novel When a writer has a new story idea, you spend time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. You’ll do bits of research. You’ll brainstorm how the story will work. You hear the voices of different characters. You think about what the book is…
Shortcuts to Writing Like A Pro You can avoid new writer traps that mark you as a beginner. Professional writing is geared toward readers. Anything that draws the reader out of the story and calls attention to your writing is not worth it.Writing craft takes practice. The benefit for you is that your story is…
Photo by Jordan McQueen on Unsplash Backstory and Dreams – New Writer Pitfalls Backstory and Dreams are traps for beginning writers. When you’re just starting out, avoid them. Yes, I know Michael Connelly uses war dreams for Bosch. Use these two story elements with a light touch. Best to avoid them. If you use them at all, wait…
Create Obstalces for Your Sleuth With Alternating Scenes Scenes are the building blocks of your story. Each scene moves the story forward. As you build your story alternate between action and reaction.When you go through the first edits of your story make certain that all scene components are in each scene. You’ll take your reader…
Photo by Eugeniu Esanu on Unsplash How To Not Get Lost In Your Mystery Writing a first mystery can be challenging as a new author. With all the information out there about writing a story, you may be tempted to get “everything” into your story. And, with your creative mind buzzing, it’s easy to have lots of ideas…
Photo by pulkit jain on Unsplash How To Meet The Challenge of Editing Your Manuscript As a novel writer, the editing process seems mysterious, daunting, and unmanageable when you view it through your creative writer lens. You are right, manuscript editing requires a different mindset and separate skills.If you approach editing with a perspective that…
