3 Ways to Define the Essence of Our Character
A character’s essence is about more than just unique characters, but what is their essence? These 3 perspectives on character essence teach us about our characters.
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Make Characters Unique with Layering
Somewhere along our learning curve as writers, we’re likely to come across the skill of layering. Layering can help us create unique characters, no matter how stereotypical or tropey they might be on the surface.
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Complex Story? Use a Crime Wall — Guest: Kitty The Retro-Writer
When we’re drafting or editing our story, we usually have to keep track characters, secrets, plots, research, and story bible details. But for complex stories, we might want to create a Writer Crime Wall.
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5 Ways to Create Movie Magic in Your Writing — Guest: J. E. Martin
Ever notice how some stories transport you more immersively into the story world? Author coach J. E. Martin is sharing her 5-step plan to help our writing create a cinematic experience for our readers.
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Want to Break Writing Rules? Gain Readers’ Trust
Just as there are risks to breaking writing rules, there’s risk in emphasizing them too much as well. And what does “strong writing” really mean when it comes to developing our voice?
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How Can We Get Away with Breaking Writing Rules?
It’s time for another post as a Resident Writing Coach over at Writers Helping Writers, and this time we’re talking about the lessons we can learn from stories that successfully break writing “rules.”
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Do’s and Don’ts When Creating Villains — Guest: Kassandra Lamb
Depending on the type of villain in our story, the psychology we use to create our character changes. Kassandra Lamb shares her 8 “do’s and don’ts” to help us create our villains.
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How Do We Create Realistic Villains? — Guest: Kassandra Lamb
The antagonist in our story might be a love interest or truly evil or anything in between. When our story requires a villain, we might struggle to avoid clichés. Kassandra Lamb shares her insights into psychopaths, sociopaths, and other bad guys.
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Using Tips from Poetry to Strengthen Our Prose — Guest: Pamela Donison
Longer writing—such as stories—can often be easier to write than something shorter, like a synopsis, query, Twitter pitch, or log line. That’s why the skills important in poetry can strengthen our prose writing.
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Creating Satisfying Endings without Clichés
A recent Twitter thread brought up problematic reader expectations with story endings. Can we find a balance between “fulfilling our story’s promise and our genre’s expectations” and avoiding a cliché ending?
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