When you write in any point of view that isn’t omniscient, you get to write a story through the eyes of a biased character. Every word of the book is filtered through the POV character’s eyes. The best part is that you can make your prose fulfill two roles: description Read more…
After talking about tropes, I want to take it one step further and discuss cliches. Our world is full of them, but they are often not welcome in our literature. Cliches are overused opinions that most people find common enough to not think them inspiring. While they can be good Read more…
Tropes are a highly debated topic in the writing world. Some love them. Some hate them. Yet tropes are a powerful tool in stories as long as they aren’t overdone to the point of being cliches. Let’s start by defining tropes and giving some examples, and then we’ll dig into Read more…
It’s time to dig back into the nitty gritty details of character development again. In this post, I want to go into how your characters deal with confrontation. In any book, characters will clash with other characters, hopefully more than once! Let’s look at different ways your characters can approach Read more…
After talking about foreshadowing last week, I can’t help but bring up its counterpart: red herrings. While red herrings are instrumental in thrillers and mysteries, they can also play a big role in other genres. Today, I want to go over the definition, purpose, and mechanics of writing them well. Read more…
Has anyone ever said your story’s ending wasn’t satisfying? Or maybe that the story didn’t hold the reader’s attention throughout? If so, these symptoms could be from a lack of foreshadowing. Today I’m going to go over two types of foreshadowing (with examples) and their purposes so you can use Read more…
In Medias Res is one of those phrases that writers throw around, but not many seem to actually understand. The Latin phrase means “in the midst of things.” There are many different interpretations, but I’ve traced the term back to its first usage in order to better understand it. Below Read more…
A while back I did a post on using sensory details to hypnotize your readers and pull them deeper into your story. Recently, I’ve been analyzing what else makes me feel immersed in a story, and I’ve discovered another way I’m pulled into a book. I’ve tried to research the Read more…
If you’ve been among writers at all, you’ve probably heard them say “kill your darlings” a time or two. It’s important to realize this is not writing advice. It’s editing advice. When you’re writing, you should follow your passion in whatever direction it takes you. However, when it’s time to Read more…
We all know how important a book’s first page is for catching a reader’s attention. It’s arguably one of the most stressful parts of a book to write, but there is no real set way to ensure you do it right. In fact, the more different it is to other Read more…