There are four things that readers learn when they read your book. Who What Why Why not We’ve been working on the who part for a few weeks now with the goal of populating our novels with characters that feel like real people rather than cardboard throw-away cutouts. We’ve done character bios for each one, … Read more
You answered all the why questions from last time about why you want to write a novel, and are still here. Good for you! So, let’s press on. Readers generally learn four things from books. Who, what, why and why not. Who = the protagonist What = the plot Why = the goals and motivation of the … Read more
I will be taking pitches over at Savvy Authors February 14-16. Pitch me!
What is writer’s block? If you look on Wikipedia, writer’s block is a “condition.” Writer’s block is a condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work, or experiences a creative slowdown. The condition ranges in difficulty from coming up with original ideas to being unable to produce a … Read more
What should the last scene in your novel look like? Learn how to write that final scene well to satisfy your readers.
The climax scene, that is. We’ve been thinking about scenes, and writing our novels in scenes, for some time as a way to improve all aspects of our books, and this week we will focus on the highest point of action and drama. First off, the climactic scene is the final turning point of action … Read more
Epiphany scenes are one of my favorites. I love learning new and transformative information as a reader. What is an epiphany? An epiphany is a sudden, intuitive perception of insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple common place occurrence or experience. Sounds simple? Think of it this way. … Read more
Admittedly, I am not a fan of the flashback scene, generally, because these tend to be written poorly and (mostly because I am in a snarky mood), end up being a huge information dump of weighed down cumbersome luggage. They wallow in or lean toward boring, and usually, the information contained in a flashback scene … Read more
The Writer’s Bag of Tricks Scene Writing It’s been a while. We last discussed writing in scenes in April, which seems a very long time ago. So let’s refresh. Writing in scenes is the idea that if you plot out your novel in scenes, and you focus on writing the best possible scene, one scene … Read more