The way your characters talk — in dialogue scenes as well as in first-person narration — can not only help a reader distinguish one from the other. It can actually serve to establish who each of them is. Is he/she an optimist or a pessimist? An extrovert or an introvert? Honest or devious? Well-educated or not so much? Perhaps as important as any of these, does he/she have a sense of humor? I hope no one needs to be told … Read More »

There’s a lot of world-building that takes place when a writer embarks on the journey of creating a story. The plot guides the reader along the path from first to last sentence. Interwoven in the plot are sensory details that make the story come alive for the reader. What’s important to keep, and what can be set aside? Let’s explore some ideas that might help in the decision-making process. Part of the World? Countless interesting details will be a part … Read More »

Football season has captured the country, and baseball play-offs have begun. In post-game discussions, we often hear about the Most Valuable Players who took the game from good to great. For writers, it’s crunch season for a lot of those year-end goals. And that means it’s time to line up the MVPs of feedback. When that manuscript is complete and polished, you need to seek out feedback. But not just any feedback. You want to orchestrate the most valuable feedback … Read More »

Some time ago, I wrote a blog on unlikable protagonists, and one of my colleagues (you know who you are!) commented that the way we see a protagonist can be mediated by the narrator. That idea is so full of interesting possibilities for an author that it deserves a blog all to itself. So, here are a few ideas to add to your literary arsenal about who is going to tell your tale. To See or Not to See The … Read More »

It sounds really obvious, but I’m continually amazed at the number of aspiring fiction writers who don’t seem to pay enough attention to helping their readers tell one character from another. This is really basic if you want to produce a page turner that requires no unnecessary effort or confusion on the part of the reader. Some of the items below may indeed go without saying, while others might bear a bit more thought and planning. Yet all of them, … Read More »

When a reader opens the cover of a book, they are embarking on an adventure the writer has created for them. What should happen at the beginning of that first chapter, and subsequent chapters? Let’s explore the possibilities. First Chapter The beginning of the first chapter of a story has specific requirements, different in some ways than subsequent chapters. It’s a big ask. There’s a lot that needs to happen as soon as possible because you want to grab and … Read More »