Do Your Stories Have Deeper Meanings?
A joke about authors vs. English teachers has circulated online for years. What can it teach us about how readers interpret our story?
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What Makes a Writer a “Real” Author?
What makes someone a “real” writer or a “real” author? Let’s look at the question of what makes a writer “real” from a different perspective.
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What Does “Plot Reveals Character” Mean?
We might have heard that the purpose of the plot is to reveal character. What does that mean and how can understanding it help our storytelling?
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The Power of Character Arcs
Without spoilers for Avengers: Endgame, let’s explore how the power of the Marvel movies isn’t about the plot or spectacle—but with the characters.
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What Defines Our Story? Drive vs. Focus
Ever feel like popular writing advice doesn’t apply to your story? Defining our story’s mix of drive vs. focus might help us know when advice is a bad fit.
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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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Showing vs. Telling: Don’t Assume Showing Is Better
In the writing world, we often hear the advice to “show, don’t tell.” I’ve mentioned before that telling isn’t bad or something to be avoided at all costs, and a fantastic post by Cecilia Tan points out how the advice can actually be harmful.
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What Do You Want in a Bookstore?
Many authors dream of working with books beyond just writing them and become editors, agents, librarians, or booksellers. In fact, Angela Quarles, my writing bestie, is opening a bookstore! And she’s looking for suggestions to make her genre- and writer-friendly shop among the best.
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Genre -Is- Worldbuilding
An article comparing the Arrival movie to its short story inspiration triggered me to see Genre differently. In short, our story’s genre is simply the worldbuilding “lens” we use to explore our story’s meaning.
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Antagonists: “He’s His Own Worst Enemy” — Guest: Kristen Lamb
Sometimes, we’ll say that a character is their own worst enemy, such as the “man versus himself” story premise. However, those stories use proxies to provide a face for the opposition. Today, we’re going to dig deeper into this idea of man versus self to better understand the concept.
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