Storytelling Verb Tenses: Past, Present, and “Literary” Past Tense
Most stories are written in literary past tense. What does that term mean, and if different from normal past tense, how is literary past tense different?
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Character Internalization: To Italicize or Not to Italicize?
A common question in writing forums asks when we should italicize a character’s thoughts. How should we format our characters’ internalizations?
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Writing Craft: How Point-of-View Affects Dialogue
We often want to share both characters’ reactions during dialogue. How can we do so without causing point-of-view, head-hopping, or attribution issues?
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Story Elements: Give Them Purpose
For a strong story pace, we need to ensure every element has purpose. How can we do that? How can we know if a scene or sentence is pointless?
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Need Advice from an Editor?
As we go through the editing process, we might have questions we wish we could ask a professional editor. How can we get our question answered?
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The RWA Implosion: How Could the Problems Be Fixed?
Not surprisingly, the RWA chaos has continued, and every day, more people are asking the question: Can RWA be saved? And if so, how?
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Why Does the RWA Implosion Matter to All Writers?
What’s going on with RWA? Here’s why all writers—even those who don’t write romance—should care about a situation that’s far beyond “in-fighting.”
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Romance Beats vs. 12 Stages of Intimacy
A reader asked how we’d place the 12 Stages on Intimacy on a beat sheet for the best pacing. Can we mesh the 12 Stages with romance beats in a story?
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How Can We Make Scenes Feel Stronger with Sequels?
Is a scene’s sequel—the reaction to a scene’s events—part of the scene? Or are they ever independent (and if so, how do we make them stronger)?
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Story and Character Goals: Can There Be Too Many?
There are many types of goals we have to juggle when writing, and conflict between our storytelling goals can make that juggling act more difficult.
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