Apologies for missing the post Halloween weekend. I was trapped setting up, hosting, and then cleaning up from a teen Halloween party. But, it’s been kind of slow as far as good writing posts from my usual sources, so maybe it’s just as well I skipped a week. Here are some of the good posts I found over the last two weeks.
Monday Musings: Building Character
With National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) quickly approaching, I started thinking about story beginnings. One of the things I struggle with at the start of a manuscript is building my characters. I know their voice, but usually other things like their hair color, eye color, mannerisms, elude me. When I first started writing this was a huge problem because even though I knew what the character wanted, I had no background as to why they were driven to desire those things.
Does Your Scene Pivot: Creating Turning Points
I’m revising my WIP novel one scene at a time and finding places where I need to do lots of work. Specifically, I want scenes that pivot.
Hooking Your Reader in 3 Easy Steps
No matter what type of stories we write, we want to grab our readers and not let go. Literary agent Sally Apokedak visits the lecture hall today to share a few tips on capturing a reader’s attention that are sure to get our attention (and help us write more compelling openings).
Crafting a Compelling Novel Concept
A weak concept can be strengthened and saved.
Almost always, the source of weakness and dysfunction within a story dwells in the nature of the concept itself; i.e., the degree, or complete lack, of something compelling within the concept. It’s hard to turn a boring concept into a compelling premise, and yet, this is the golden ring of revision. We need to do precisely that, usually by adding a conceptual layer rather than by looking to the premise to fix the problem.
25 THINGS A GREAT CHARACTER NEEDS
This post is actually an older one, but it resurfaced for me last week. It’s a fantastic list–and chock full of Chuck’s usual attitude!
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 each weekend with a list of the fiction writing articles I found most interesting or useful.