Dread Writing Sexy Scenes? 5 Tips for Success
Whatever genre we write, we often have to write scenes that make us uncomfortable. For many, sexy scenes are high on that discomfort scale.
Pin ItWhat Should Our Story’s Climax Include?
It’s tricky to tie up all the threads in our story’s Climax and even harder to give guidelines for how to write it, but let’s try to identify some story aspects we might want to include.
Pin ItDon’t Believe These Writing Myths: Part Two — Guest: Jeff Lyons
In Part Two, Jeff Lyons shares more of the most common writing myths and the lie and danger for us if we believe them. Learn the truth instead.
Pin ItStory Tropes: What’s the Subtext?
A story’s meaning and hidden messages often lurk in the subtext. Subtext flows throughout our plots, characters, themes, genres…and story tropes. Depending on how we use and twist story tropes, we might create very different messages for readers.
Pin ItDo You Meet the Prerequisites to Be a Writer?
Are there prerequisites to call ourselves a writer? No. If you write, you’re a writer. Period. But when we pay attention to other writers, every writer—no matter how successful—could find something to feel inadequate about if we let our self-doubt get a hold of us.
Pin ItOne Simple Trick to Avoid an Opening Page Infodump
It’s hard to get our opening pages just right because we have to grab readers’ attention, introduce our characters and the story world, hint at a problem, etc. With everything we want to get across to the reader, we might dump too much information. How can we avoid info dumping or confusing readers at the beginning of our story?
Pin ItShould We Follow the Advice to Write Every Day?
If we know other writers at all, chances are good that we’ve heard a lot of advice. One of the most common pieces of advice? According to dozens of multi-published, bestselling authors, it’s “write every day.” Do they know better than us what it takes to be a writer? Is that a must-listen rule?
Pin ItHow to Strengthen Our Characters with Strong Writing
Readers can interpret our characters as weak for many reasons, such as being passive, foolish, or lacking an arc. Another way a character might seem weak is using weak sentences in our writing, making them seem more wishy-washy than we intend.
Pin ItHow Should We Deal with Character Stereotypes?
Clichés, tropes, and stereotypes all seem like signs of lazy writing. And they are—or at least, they can be. But it can be impossible to avoid all instances of stereotypical elements. So what should we do instead?
Pin ItWhen Readers Don’t Believe Our Writing
One of the many reasons we need feedback is to help us fill in the blanks for things we can’t see or for understanding how others might interpret our words. But what happens when readers see our words and understand our intention, but they don’t believe what we’re telling them?
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