NaNoWriMo Is Coming…Are You Ready?
This time of year, writers try to get their story idea into shape before the first of November. Here’s some help to get your planning off on the right foot with NaNoWriMo.
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Can Common Writing Advice Be Wrong?
There’s no “one right way” in writing, so how should we approach writing advice if even the most frequently shared advice is often wrong?
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Do Our Stories Need More Conflict?
Out in the world, conflict is usually considered a bad thing, but our stories need it. How much conflict does our story need and how can we add more?
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How Pacing Helps Readers Care about Our Characters
I never watched Game of Thrones but this past season is an excellent example of how pacing can affect character arcs and readers’ relationships to our characters.
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Advice: For Writing or Beyond
With both my virtual and physical organizing projects, I was reminded of advice attributed to Marie Kondo: “Discard everything that does not spark joy. That advice resonated with me far beyond “tidying up.”
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Creating Characters Who Clash — Guest: Angela Ackerman
Every page of our story should include tension, such as friction between characters, but how do we create characters who clash? Let’s see how to develop characters who create tension in every interaction.
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NaNo Prep: Is Your Story Idea Ready?
To make NaNo work for us, we need to figure out our goals for the experience—and there’s no wrong answer. However, if our goal is to create a coherent story, we should try to understand story structure.
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How to Save a Broken Story
A truly broken story is one where the pieces of the story don’t come together in a coherent whole. But if we’re willing to put in the work, virtually any story can be saved. Then question then is: What steps should we take to fix a broken story?
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Deep POV and Hidden Messages in Subtext — Guest: Lisa Hall-Wilson
Deep POV relates the story from inside our character’s head, and subtext hides meanings between our words. Together, those concepts develop our characters and the relationship between them.
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Showing vs. Telling: Finding the Right Balance
It’s not always easy to know how much showing or telling works best for our story, so let’s dig a little deeper into some of the problems with trying to find the right balance of showing and telling in our stories.
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