When writing a story, the protagonist has to have a goal. There needs to be something specific the character is working towards so he has a sense of agency. What you often don’t hear, though, is that your protagonist needs more than one goal. Today, we’re going to look at Read more
Has anyone ever told you that your story is falling flat and you need to raise the stakes? What they mean is you need more escalation in your plot, but not in the way most would think. Last week we discussed how to put stakes into your novel, and this Read more
A story is a character trying to overcome obstacles to achieve a goal, but the reader won’t care unless there are significant stakes involved. Something has to be at risk in order for the story to have an impact. It was really hard to find concrete information on what stakes Read more
Today is another entry in the Character Under A Microscope series where I dig deeper into character development to help you make your characters realistic. This time we will examine why your characters talk. Seems simple, right? They talk to communicate with others. While communication is the overarching goal of Read more
I’ve done an overview of character interiority, and last week we talked about interiority and its subconscious aspects you can use to ground your readers in your character’s viewpoint. Today, I want to move on to the conscious side of character interiority. This is the part that shows how characters Read more
Last year, I did a post on interiority and how it gives readers access to the POV character’s thoughts and feelings throughout a story. If you missed that lesson or need a refresher, you can read my post on interiority before we dig deeper into the topic today. I found Read more
One of the more subtle parts of storytelling is knowing what to say and when. In books, we use text to convey our message, but that text is made of context and subtext. Both are important for conveying meaning, but they serve very different purposes so you can’t use either Read more
Back when I first started these writing tips, I did a post on five mistakes new writers make. I meant to add more posts on other common mistakes, but I never got around to it. So, this week, I want to point out five more mistakes I often seen when Read more
In the past, I’ve gone over the two functions of scenes and the three secrets of scenes, but today I want to talk about a scene’s cycle. A scene is the basic unit of story. By putting together multiple scenes, you create your book. However, you also have to make Read more
Every now and then, you find a book that really sticks with you. It connects with who you are. It resonates. But why? And how do you make your book do that for your readers? Today I want to discuss resonance and how to capture it with your story. Resonance Read more