Have you taken my reader surveys? See the red bar at the top of this page. You could win an Amazon gift certificate!
Hey, folks. Here you go, the best writing posts I’ve found over the last two weeks.
Turning Points
In every story there are turning points, moments in time where the characters are forced into a new course of action and thus get unexpected results.
Scene Structure and Character Arc
Novels are about characters—characters who undergo significant change. Or, at least the protagonist should. A novel in which the protagonist doesn’t learn, grow, or change is a stagnant novel.
5 Ways to Tell if a Subplot is Leading You Astray
Subplots have a way of taking over some stories. They steal all the action, distract the protagonist, or in the worst cases, shine brighter than the actual plot. Good subplots enhance the story, support the theme, and brighten what’s already there. A bad subplot tries to smother it in its sleep with a pillow.
What You Need to Know About Show, Don’t Tell
Show, don’t tell, has got to be one of the more frustrating pieces of writing advice out there. It’s ambiguous, it changes depending on the book, and most of the time, no one tells us how to actually put that advice into practice in our work.
Your Better Half: What Happens When One POV is Better?
One of the hurdles of having a dual point of view (POV) is making sure readers like and care about both characters in the story. This is doubly hard if there’s conflict between them, but that conflict is something to be overcome, not the thing holding them back (as in, the second POV isn’t the bad guy).
How to Subtly Boost Your Dialogue’s Power With Body Language
It’s funny that writing a good story depends a lot on what not being said. It’s a constant balance between giving our readers the information they need to understand the story, and holding enough back so they can lose themselves in that story and make their own assumptions and judgements about it. Alex Limberg visits the lecture hall today to share some tips on one great way to say a lot without saying anything–body language.
Setup and Payoff: The Two Equally Important Halves of Story Foreshadowing
I have good news and I have bad news. Let’s assume you have a killer story idea. It offers unique plot developments and totally unexpected plot twists. That’s the good news.
I read a large number of blogs and sites every week and will be curating them here, on my blog. If you want to see my picks of the best articles each week, just subscribe below. You’ll get an email every other weekend with a list of the fiction writing articles I found most interesting or useful.