The End There’s something so immensely gratifying about typing those words. A hint of sadness, perhaps, but an overwhelming cause for celebration! Typing “the end” means that you have completed a huge task–one that you began with trepidation, perhaps, not really sure you had it in you. “The end” means that you’ve said what you […]
How to Build Scenes and Add Length and Substance to Your Novel
May 10, 2013 By 5 Comments
“I want to make my story longer.” That’s something I hear a lot of young writers say. Excited about embarking on a first novel-length work, the tendency is to get a little bit stuck on what to add to the Big Middle to lengthen the WIP. If that’s where you’re stuck right now, here’s what […]
Understanding the Role of Subplots When Structuring Your Story
February 22, 2013 By 2 Comments
You often find writers and reviewers speaking of a story’s layers — whether they viewed those layers as in-depth or lacking. Layers might be defined as the presence of subplots. Subplots, when broken down, are often scenes strung together that reveal a closer look at a hero’s personal life in a way that exposes deeper […]
The XYZs of Story Writing – Part Two of Three
December 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Continuing in our series of 3 basic aspects of story writing, we move on to “Y”… The “Y” of Story Writing When I think of the letter Y, I also think of the question why. The letter y reminds me to ask a host of questions as I write. Why? How? When? What? — or […]
Rough Drafting
November 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment
November is National Novel Writing Month, most often referred to as NaNoWiMo or NaNo. I’m typing my way toward 50,000 words to create part of a novel rough draft. Did you catch the last two words in that sentence? ROUGH DRAFT Much of what I’ve written will, and should, disappear during an editing phase. As […]
