What Do Readers Want from a Story’s POV?
Our story is—in many respects—what our story’s POV tells readers it is. So what do we want readers to get out of our story and chosen POV?
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How Does Our Character’s POV Affect Our Story?
Why is POV so important to understand? The better we understand the power of our character’s POV, the stronger we can make our characters and our story.
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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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What Does It Mean to “Write to Market”?
The advice “write to market” often causes a strong reaction. What does it mean? Can we benefit from writing to market without selling out?
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Do Your Characters Take on a Life of Their Own?
How can we get to know our characters well enough that they take on a life of their own? Is it a good sign if we hear their voice?
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Storytelling Verb Tenses: Past, Present, and “Literary” Past Tense
Most stories are written in literary past tense. What does that term mean, and if different from normal past tense, how is literary past tense different?
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Story Elements: Give Them Purpose
For a strong story pace, we need to ensure every element has purpose. How can we do that? How can we know if a scene or sentence is pointless?
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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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Discovering What Matters: Editing and Your Life
What does the moving process have in common with the editing process? Both make us prioritize, purge, and question what matters.
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How Can We Make Our Protagonist More Proactive?
Why is it important for characters to be active or proactive rather than reactive or passive? How can we fix a passive protagonist?
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