Story Tropes: How Do We Twist a Cliché?
Sometimes we’ll hear writing advice like “avoid clichés,” but what does that mean when it comes to story tropes? After all, can’t tropes be helpful? And if so, how do we make them less cliché?
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How Do Pantsers Develop Characters?
Plotters might find any kind of pantsing hard to understand, but even pantsers can struggle with pantsing our characters’ development, as that process comes with a different set of problems from developing our plots.
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Our Story’s Essence: What’s the Story We Want to Tell?
Last week, we talked about discovering the essence of our character, but what about the essence of our story. What makes a story idea the one we want to tell? And why does understanding our story’s essence matter?
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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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Happy New Year! Get a Fresh Start
With the New Year, I like the idea of fresh starts, so I’m sharing a tip from Twitter on how we can draft our story in a different font than usual to help us see everything with fresh eyes.
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What Is Writers Block (Really) and How Can We Beat It? — Guest: Lisa Bell
Suffering from writer’s block? Lisa Bell shares the brain science behind what causes writer’s block and gives us “brain hacks” we can use to beat it.
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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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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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Writer Productivity: Who Needs a Magic Wand? — Guest: Pascale Kavanagh
One the first day of NaNoWriMo, Pacale Kavanagh share insights and advice on how meditation can help our mindfulness to better focus, ignore distractions, and turbocharge our productivity.
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