What Does It Mean to “Write to Market”?
The advice “write to market” often causes a strong reaction. What does it mean? Can we benefit from writing to market without selling out?
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Storytelling: It’s about Going Primal — Guest: Elizabeth Randolph
When we first start writing, we often learn lots of new “rules,” which can narrow our focus onto writing craft so much that we lose sight of storytelling. How can we regain that storytelling mindset?
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Genre -Is- Worldbuilding
An article comparing the Arrival movie to its short story inspiration triggered me to see Genre differently. In short, our story’s genre is simply the worldbuilding “lens” we use to explore our story’s meaning.
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Story Tropes: Lazy or Helpful?
Every genre and medium of storytelling uses tropes, and they often have a bad reputation—for good reason. All too frequently, they can indicate lazy storytelling or worldbuilding. But they don’t have to be a bad thing.
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What’s “High Concept” & How Can I Create It? — Guest: Jeff Lyons
Last week, Jeff Lyons shared how to make every story idea the best it could be. Today he’s delving into the tricky description of high concept. Many agents and editors say they prefer high-concept stories, but what does that mean?
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Story Immersion: What Pulls You In?
When I first joined Goodreads, their account form asked me: “What Kind of Books Do You Like to Read?” My answer to that question helped me realize that I love becoming immersed in a story, the sense that we’re not just reading words on a page. But what creates story immersion?
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Does Our Story Have Everything It Needs?
After completing a story, we might face the question of whether to put in the effort to revise it. If we decide our story has enough promise, what should we do next? Does our story contain all the essential elements? Does it have the bones of a good story?
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Story Research: Law, Lawyers, and the Justice System — Guest: Karen A. Wyle
As writers, we get to research anything we want. The problem comes when we think we know something, so we make assumptions without doing the research. Many of us assume we know the justice system because of the endless TV shows and movies depicting lawyers and courtrooms, but those sources don’t always get it right.
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What If Our Story Idea Has Already Been Done?
In my last post about Google search terms, I mentioned that we sometimes have lots of content around a search’s keywords and yet have never answered the question directly. In that case, Google just gave us an idea for a blog post. *smile* One search term that led people to my blog this […]
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What Disneyland Can Teach Us about World-building
First, I want to thank J.A. Paul and Rachel Firasek for their guest posts. I had fun with their interviews and I hope you all did too. Yes, I’m back from a fun, exhausting trip to Disneyland. And yes, my vacation inspired a blog post. You’re not surprised, are you? […]