You may have heard the terms character driven and plot driven and assumed you knew what they meant, but this concept is harder to grasp than it seems. I originally thought I wrote character driven fantasies, but I’ve recently been rethinking that statement. While I believe my stories are very Read more
After I finish my first draft of a book, I like to take a break and then come back with fresh eyes to do a book analysis before doing any rewriting. My analysis basically entails me rereading the book and marking issues I’d like to correct. While I’m reading, I Read more
This week is going to seem a little random in topics, but I wanted to share five online resources that have helped me on my author career. These are tools for any part of your author journey, whether you are building a brand, brainstorming a story, researching facts, or just Read more
We’ve covered Consumer Genres and Content Genres, and now I want to look at Story Genres. This is the last helpful list of genre types I’ve found, and it was created by Blake Snyder in his Cave The Save! books. I am presenting Jessica Brody’s version of it, which is Read more
Last week we went over Consumer Genres and how readers are drawn to certain ones, and now I want to look at Content Genres. These twelve Content Genre categories divide stories into types based on what the protagonist wants in the story. Since readers follow the protagonist and live the Read more
One of the first posts I did when I started my website was on book genres, but back then I thought they were as simple as a section in a bookstore or library. I have since learned they are more complex than that. The next few weeks I want to Read more
I’m back for another post in my Character Under A Microscope Series. One skill a writer must learn is creating characters who are not like you. There are many details that go into character development, and one of those is a sense of humor. But not everyone’s humor is the Read more
This week is the last and most detailed story structure method in our series. Save The Cat! became popular for screenwriting, but Jessica Brody wrote a book that translated it for novels. I’ve read both the screenwriting and the novel version, and Jessica’s book is by far more helpful for Read more
Super Story Structure is a method devised by James Scott Bell, and it is the first story structure that actually made sense to me when I started writing. Everyone talked about outlines and plot, and I had the hardest time following their methods. Once I read Bell’s Super Structure, something Read more
This week we are moving on to the three more detailed story structures for those who want more organization when devising a successful story. Again, story structure is all about picking the one that works best for you. I am going to start with the popular Hero’s Journey, but, if Read more