What to Write Next: Playing Favorites
The vast majority of us will write more than one story during our life, so at some point in our career, we’ll have to decide what we’re going to write next. The question then becomes, how do we decide?
Pin ItCalling All Scrivener-Using Over Achievers!
Many of my most popular posts share tools I’ve developed to help writers. By request, here’s a Scrivener template for my Master Beat Sheet, which combines the Save the Cat Beat Sheet and my Story Engineering Beat Sheet.
Pin ItHappy New Year! Time to Leave Guilt Behind…
This time of year is ripe for wrap-ups of what we accomplished over the previous year. However, it’s easy to reach the end of 2017 and feel like a failure for not accomplishing enough or not reaching a certain goal or milestone.
Pin ItAuthor Marketing: Insights and Ideas for Local Promotion — Guest: Elizabeth Randolph
We often hear advice about online marketing, but we shouldn’t forget local opportunities. Elizabeth Randolph is here to give her unvarnished look at a few local promotion options—what worked, what didn’t, and what she wants to try in the future.
Pin ItStorytelling: It’s about Going Primal — Guest: Elizabeth Randolph
When we first start writing, we often learn lots of new “rules,” which can narrow our focus onto writing craft so much that we lose sight of storytelling. How can we regain that storytelling mindset?
Pin ItHolidays and Writing: Chaos, Inspiration, or Both?
Like many, this time of year, I’m often in the mood for Christmas-themed stories. So that’s a reminder that while holidays are chaotic, we might use them for writing inspiration.
Pin ItHow to Create Scene Endings that Hook Readers
We’ve been talking about the difference types of transitions we might create between scenes and plot events. Today, we’re focusing on the types of sentences that will strengthen our scene endings (and thus our scenes).
Pin ItTransition Techniques: Meanwhile, in Our Subplot…
Last time, we discussed how to identify and fix episodic writing to make our stories stronger with the “But” and “Therefore” rule. However, there’s another option for transitioning from scene to scene: the “meanwhile.”
Pin ItIs Your Writing Episodic—or Epic?
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 episodic writing so we can take our story to “epic” level.
Pin ItStory Immersion: How Can We Improve Our Readers’ Experience? — Guest: Jefferson Smith
Beyond the vague instruction to “write well,” what can we do to increase the connection readers feel with our story? Jefferson Smith shares specific things we can do that will make our stories more immersive.
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