Who’s in Control of the Scene? You have a hero. You have a heroine. You have a scene. The question is which of those characters is controlling the scene? What does it mean to head-hop, and why is head-hopping a bad thing? When embarking on any scene in a novel, you are naturally taking on […]
Writing Lesson 3.13-Adding Adventures
November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment
We started the year with a post on Story Engineering. With two contributors in the midst of home renovations, it’s no wonder if our posts about plotting a story keep drawing analogies to architecture. We’ve likened genre to architectural style. We’ve said that themes and motifs provide a sense of form and function to the […]
Writing Lesson 3.5-A Quick Way to Draw in Your Readers
September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A guest post by Sandra Orchard Details. Not a hundred of them listed ad nauseum, but key details unique to the POV character that are both fresh and rich in sensory information. Dig deep into the scene. Don’t just say your hero is wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Maybe his mom hung them on the […]
Writing Lesson 3.4-Empower Your Writing with these Simple Techniques
September 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A guest post by Sandra Orchard Do you scratch your head when someone tells you that you need to “show, not tell”? It’s the key to writing compelling commercial fiction, but an often difficult concept to grasp in all its nuances. Today I’m going to share with you some simple ways to… “Show” emotion without […]
Writing Lesson 2.26 – Descriptive Writing
March 18, 2011 By 1 Comment
Readers of my book Grow Old With Me often comment about my descriptive writing style. I love to pull the reader into the scene and the story world by showing them what my characters experience. Benjamin looked over the valley as he retrieved tools from the back of his truck. That gets the message across. […]
