How to Point Readers’ Attention in the Right Direction
It’s time for another post as a Resident Writing Coach over at Writers Helping Writers, where we’re exploring how a specific writing technique can point readers’ attention just where we want it.
Point of View: What’s the Best Choice?
A story idea could be presented to readers countless different ways. How can we choose the best perspective for telling the tale?
Is Our Story’s Point of View Really What We Think It Is?
Third-person POV ranges from the most distant to the deepest perspectives, so how can we tell where our story falls on the POV spectrum to avoid problems?
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How to Improve Our Story with Action Beats
For dialogue attribution, action beats are more flexible than dialogue tags for our writing, adding details to our story and immersing readers in the scene.
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Backstory: Avoid Info Dumping by Making It Essential: Part 2 — Guest: Kris Kennedy
A character’s false belief is central to a story’s internal arc, and the defining moment in a character’s backstory is key to creating that false belief.
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Backstory: Avoid Info Dumping by Making It Essential: Part 1 — Guest: Kris Kennedy
Backstory helps readers connect to our characters and provides context for their actions, but how can we make it compelling and avoid boring information dumps?
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Worldbuilding a Series: Writing without a Plan
Some writers plan their worldbuilding details in advance. Others…not so much. How can we worldbuild when we write a series by the seat of our pants?
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Worldbuilding: Your Story World’s History 101
Worldbuilding means we have to create the “rules” for our characters and their story world. How can we can develop our story’s world to make it feel real?
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Showing vs. Telling: The Power of Context
The implication of the advice to “show, don’t tell” is that showing is “better” than telling when our story actually needs both. Let’s explore what “show, don’t tell” really means when it comes to storytelling.
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Beyond Visuals: How to “Show” with Other Senses
The word showing obviously makes us think visually, but same as us, our characters experience the world through more than just their visual sense. What are our options for showing beyond visual descriptions? Can we create a deeper world by engaging other senses?
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