There is a lot of advice on how to write a story’s climax. While many sources state you must have an internal change in the protagonist right before or during the external plot’s climax, very few focus on how to Read more
Somehow, I’ve gotten years into writing these posts and have not done one on external and internal story arcs. I reference these all the time so I’m sure my followers have grasped the meaning of these terms, but I want Read more
After studying first pages and opening scenes for books, I realized I’ve never discussed how to write a good last line for a story. Most writers can just feel when a good ending line hits them, but there are specific Read more
Last week we discussed your character’s subjective image of himself, and now I want to talk about how and when to expose your character’s core self. We all have an ideal self-image we try to portray to the world, but Read more
In this week’s Character Under a Microscope post, I want to zoom in on a character’s image. Specifically, her self-imposed image. While everyone has a persona that society sees, it’s not always the truth. Let’s look at a person’s subjective Read more
When I started writing professionally, I was terrible at story openings. So much seemed to rest on how well you started a book that I overthought it. After numerous revisions, I’d end up with what would equate to something wrapped Read more
A while back, I wrote a post about using sentence function to pace your novel. Today, I want to get into story pacing on a scene-level instead of a sentence-level. There is a weird correlation between your words on the Read more
In my first six months of writing these posts, I put out a list of five books every writer should read. I still stand by that list, but I’ve been building my library of writing craft books and think it’s Read more
Let’s examine character development in another Character Under A Microscope post. Today, I want to talk about grieving. If you’re writing your story right, the protagonist should go through many trials and eventually end up in an All is Lost Read more
Authors get the advice all the time to work emotions into their stories and evoke feelings from the readers. It’s sound advice, and there’s a plethora of resources out there on how to portray emotions, both internally and externally. Today Read more