6 Steps to Balance Your Editing: Plot vs. Characters
When starting a revision, we often struggle to see the underlying issue to know how to fix it. Do we need to change the plot? The characters? Both?
Pin ItExpand Our Senses and Improve Our Descriptions
How many hundreds of times have we all heard the advice to “show not tell”? That’s often good advice (except for the times when it’s not *smile*). Other than the exceptions, “showing” usually is better than telling because it pulls the reader deeper into the story. But that means we […]
Pin ItWriter’s Block? Use a Random Generator
Have writer’s block? Or need some brainstorming help? Here’s a huge collection of random generators for both plot and character issues.
Pin ItOne Step to Better Writing and More Diversity
The push for diversity isn’t about valuing diversity over storytelling. Or about meeting a quota. Or making a statement. This is about being a better writer.
Pin ItThe Danger of Political Correctness for Diverse Books
Diverse books are important—not simply for the sake of diversity—but so that by sheer number of representations, any one type of character isn’t limited to a stereotype. The truth is that we are all diverse. No one stereotypical character will ever represent us, no matter our color, nationality, or background.
Pin ItThe Value of “Crap” Jobs
Endless advice exists telling us “life is a journey; enjoy the ride” and “happiness comes from within.” On some level, we’ve probably heard that advice so much that we dismiss what it really means.
But that advice is true and valid. Life is what we make of it.
Is “Do What You Love” Good Advice?
Life is filled with work that needs to be done whether someone loves to do it or not. I’ll be the first to admit that I write because I love it. But the problem with thinking that we should do what we love and love what we do—as a career—is many layered.
Pin ItWhat Drives You to Write?
Writing can be a difficult career. Writers can be lonely, plagued by self-doubt, faced with rejections that feel personal and judgmental, and expected to be good at everything (creative and a sales/marketing person!). Yet we do it anyway. We must have our reasons…beyond sheer insanity, I mean.
Pin ItBlogging Tip: Increase Shares with Images that Pop
Images help our blog post be noticed, and many social media sites (where our post might be shared) focus on images as well. So including an image with our post means that we’re not only capturing readers’ attention, but we’re also increasing the odds that our post will be shared. Great! But not all images are appropriate for our blog.
Pin ItHow Can We Show a Character’s Internal Journey?
I’m a big fan of Michael Hauge’s approach to characters. His insights helped me figure out how to match a character’s internal journey to the external plot. This is often tricky, though, so let’s go deeper into how characters change.
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