Where Normal Need Not Apply
Tip-heavy posts about writing skills and concepts that improve our stories. Sample topics: how to create a strong character, storytelling skills, information dumps, using point of view, subtext, using themes, building scenes, etc.
We all love a “good” villain, but sometimes we want our bad guy to see the light and find redemption (or at least start on that path). Becca Puglisi is here to show us how with four paths to redemption for our villain.
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For many writers, revision is the scariest step of the editing process because it involves much bigger changes than simply tweaking a sentence or word. Lisa Poisso is sharing her suggestions for how to improve our revision skills.
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A Black Moment is an event in our story that steals the protagonist’s hope for a solution. However, some stories don’t make sense with a typical catastrophe for a Black Moment. How can we give them a Black Moment that will work?
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Not sure what parallelism means in our sentence structures? From lists and comparisons to using rhetorical devices, improving this skill helps strengthen our writing.
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Because our themes live in the subtext, it’s easy to create unintended themes that undermine our intended theme. That risk increases if we’re trying to create success themes but our story has a bittersweet ending.
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At some point in our editing process, we usually have to get nitpicky about our word choices because the right words often don’t come out in the first draft. This step can be tedious but oh-so-important for strengthening our writing and improving our story’s pace.
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It’s time for another post as a Resident Writing Coach over at Writers Helping Writers, and this time we’re talking about how to find and fix the mixed messages undermining our story’s themes.
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Characters inhabit every story, and yet we might not have thought deeply about what they are, what they mean for our story, and how we can use that knowledge to create characterization. Today, author Damon Suede shares his insights.
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Sometimes books don’t earn a “perfect” review because of minor problems. Let’s talk about some of the small issues that might hold back our work from being as good—or as great—as it could be.
Pin ItWe’ve been working to ensure my mega-lists of writing craft skills for story development, line editing, and copy editing are as complete as possible. Today, we’re diving into a deeper explanation of theme development.
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