Fiction Blogs
Story Problems: Four Major Issues Writers Face, Part III of III
The final story issue in our series concerns inconsistencies in your story, series, and world. In other words, contradicting facts in your story’s canon.
Three Big Plot Problems and How to Fix Them, Part II of II
There are many ways a plot can go astray, but plot armor, deus ex machina, and plot holes are the most common. So why would you ever want to use these devices? And if you do, how do you use them correctly?
Three Big Plot Problems and How to Fix Them, Part I of II
There are many ways a script or novel can go astray. Today, we’re going to review three big plotting issues that face writers: plot armor, deus ex machina, and plot holes. All three fall squarely in the writer’s hands.
Concept vs. Premise vs. Story, Part II of II
In the first part of this series, we looked at the definitions and purposes of concept, premise and story. Now let’s look at how to build a good premise and break down one of the previous examples to see how the author built a stronger story from her concept and premise.
Concept vs. Premise vs. Story, Part I of II
Concept, premise and story are not the same things. Confusing them or using them interchangeably is a common mistake, but one that weakens writing. In this two-part series, we’ll explore what each of these terms means and how to use each technique to build stronger stories.
Interrogating Your Characters: How Asking Questions Will Lead to Stronger Writing (Part 2 of 2)
In Part I of this series, we examined some ways to dig deeper into your characters’ motivation and figure out their stakes in the plot. Now let’s go even farther by asking your characters:
Interrogating Your Characters: How Asking Questions Will Lead to Stronger Stories (Part 1 of 2)
The only thing that matters in fiction is why. Why does what is happening matter to the protagonist and other characters? Why should we care? It’s not enough for things to happen to your characters. You have to know what it means to each of them and how it affects their lives. This means you need to know what makes your characters tick. Why they make the choices they do. Why they react the way they do. Why they don’t just walk away.
Adapting The Rule of Six for Novelists (Part 2 of 2)
In part one of this series, we talked about how and why film editor Walter Murch’s famous Rule of Six works equally well for novelists. Now let’s break down each of the six rules:
Adapting The Rule of Six for Novelists (Part 1 of 2)
The Rule of Six is a list of the six most important types of cuts a film editor should make, according to famed film editor Walter Murch in his book, In the Blink of an Eye. Though written for film editors, his suggestions make sense for novelists too.
Setting and Set Dressing (Part 3 of 3)
Setting is more than the broad location and time. It is everything contained within that space—the items and props that your characters handle and face.
Setting and Set Dressing (Part 2 of 3)
Setting is an essential element in any story. It provides context and a space for your characters. When wielded properly, it can do more than simply list what your characters can see. It can support every other aspect of your writing.
The last blog covered the basics of setting. Now it’s time to explore ways to use setting to its best advantage.
Setting and Set Dressing (Part 1 of 3)
Story requires place to make it come alive. Writing setting is much like the job of a set designer for the stage or screen. The trick is to discover ways to bring your setting to life. This may mean describing a building, a forest, a living room or some other place where your characters can move about their lives. This is setting. It includes everything from location to descriptions of the dishes on the kitchen table.
Flat or Static Character Arcs
Negative Character Arc
There are three main types of character arcs: positive, negative and flat/static. This is the second of three blogs that will analyze these types of character arcs. (Warning: spoilers ahead.)
Positive Character Arcs
There are three main types of character arcs: positive, negative and flat/static. This is the first of three blogs that will analyze the three types. First up: Positive arcs. Caution: Spoilers ahead.
Character Arc: Steps for Developing the Arc (Part 3 of 3)
This is the final blog in a short series about developing a character arc. The first blog defined the character arc and its importance. The second discussed how to begin developing that arc. This final blog offers concrete steps to take to create a fully developed character:
Writing a character is like giving birth to a fully grown person. You are in charge of making them from how they look, walk, speak, act and everything else that comprises a person. Here are some tips to bring them to life:
Character Arc: Developing the Arc (Part 2 of 3)
Characters need to be a fully realized, complex people with virtues and flaws. They need convictions and fears, hopes and worries, and skills to help and hurt their progress. Most importantly, they need to change. This is the crux of character development. But how do you do that?
Character Arcs (Part 1 of 3)
When we read a story, we want to get pulled into the lives of the characters on the page, to connect and engage. We want to struggle with them. Fall in love. Experience everything they do. We want to see them change. That’s how their journey becomes ours.
It doesn’t matter how amazing a setting or world is if there is no character for us to identify with or rail against. It’s the characters who pull us into and through the story. Characters who prevail and share their triumphs and failures with us. Ideally, these characters change somewhere between the beginning and the end.
The course of a character’s story is called a character arc.
7 Questions to Ask Your Character: The Stanislavski System
Studying acting is a great way to learn how to create characters as a writer. In my last blog, I wrote about what I’ve learned from acting. In this blog, I am going to delve into the Stanislavski System of acting.
Constantin Stanislavski is recognized as the father of modern theater. He created a system of acting that dug deeper into the emotions of the actor and the work. He created a series of seven questions to help actors approach a character. I have listed those questions below with tips for how writers might use these questions to create better characters.
18 Lessons for Writers from Acting: Bringing Characters to Life
In many ways, I learned more about writing from my music and drama classes than I did from my writing classes. I learned about rhythm, cadence and flow from music. How to build tension and action to a crescendo in the work and then how to release it for a satisfying ending. Those are the building blocks of music theory. I learned how to explore character, motivation and emotion in my acting classes. All of those are valuable lessons for a writer.
My writing classes taught me the craft, but music and acting taught me how to add depth and bring those mechanics to life.
Characterization (Part 2 of 2)
This is part two in Developing Characters. You can read the first part here. It talks about creating characters that are complete, like people. This part is focused on the big answers you need when creating a good character.
Characterization: The Basics (Part 1 of 2)
Building a character is harder than making a friend (which is not a small statement for an introvert to make). This is, of course, if you don’t make a habit of analyzing everything about your friends and their every action, which would be both presumptuous and rude, at the very least.
Dissecting Your Way to Success: How to Break Down a Novel (Part 2 of 2)
This is the second part of a blog on approaching a book like a writer. The first part can be found here.
The best way to learn how to write a novel is to pull some apart and analyze how they were put together. Here is the second part of things to look at during your dissection:
Dissecting Your Way to Success: How to Break Down a Novel (Part 1 of 2)
What I am advocating is to approach the book like a writer. Investigate what made the book work and fail. Pull it apart into its component parts — plot, character, scene, POV — and see how it was put together. There is no better master class in writing than looking deeply at the books you love and love to hate. But you have to be critical in your analysis.
Making Setting Come Alive (Part 3 of 3)
This is the final installment in my three-part series on Setting. It’s time to share some great examples of setting in novels for inspiration.
Some authors excel at setting. You read them and can feel the wind on your face or get goose bumps from fear. These masters know how to use setting to increase tension, mood, characterization, anchoring and texture.
Making Setting Come Alive (Part 2 of 3)
Setting is an essential part of any fictional work. It anchors your character in time and place, and allows your reader to see, hear, smell and touch the world you have created. This is not an easy task. It takes careful consideration and a deft touch.
Making Setting Come Alive (Part 1 of 3)
Characters cannot live outside of time or place. Story demands setting to anchor characters in the world around them. You do this by using specific details. Anchoring requires specific details to firmly establish the what, where and when. But setting goes beyond that basic information. It also helps ground story in mood, texture and sense. It lets a writer reveal how a character feels about place, time and items around them. It also contributes to tension and pacing.