Now that we have discussed the most important characters in a story, let’s move down on the tier of character types. These next ones are powerful side characters that either help or hinder your main characters. They aren’t powerful enough to end the conflict between good and evil (that’s your Read more
For the next few weeks I’m going to focus on the main character types found in stories. As with everything in life, if you have one thing you also have its opposite. Therefore, I’m presenting these character types in pairs to show both sides of the coin, so to speak. Read more
Dependent clauses are useful when telling a story. It can help vary your sentence structure and enable you to form more complex sentences to convey more meaning. Though they are a useful tool, they often get misused. I would like to share two ways I see this done the most: Read more
There is no such thing as a good story with no conflict in it. While we like to have conflict-free lives, we must have conflict in our books in order to keep the reader’s attention. This, my fellow writers, is where the Try/Fail cycle comes into play. Try/Fail Cycle Over Read more
As one of the biggest culprits of inflating a word count, repetition is something everyone does that writers have to teach themselves to avoid. If you listen to people talk, they will repeat themselves numerous times even if they don’t have a memory problem. It’s natural for us to say Read more
Giving thanks for what we have is a good exercise, especially for writers. In a world where things can change on a dime, you have to be good at focusing on the positive. I’m doing something a little different this week. I want to give thanks for the authors that Read more
A major part of being a good writer is reading. If you’re a new writer and you haven’t spent the majority of your life devouring books, you are behind the ball. You should be constantly reading other fiction books. Specifically, but not exclusively, books in your genre. I heard it Read more
The Three Act Structure is the concept that each story can be broken into three main parts: Act I, Act II, and Act III. In Act I, we see the characters in their normal lives. Act II is when something changes their status quo and they run into problem after Read more
One of the most common debates in the writing world is about pantsers verses plotters. Though these two types of writers are treated like an either/or option, it really is more of a sliding scale measurement for writing methods. Still, knowing which way you swing will help you with your Read more
One of the biggest struggles writers have with characters is portraying their emotions. It’s the issue of “show, don’t tell” again. While most writers get the hang of showing the character’s emotions rather than telling them, it can be hard to not repeat yourself. My goal for this post is Read more