We’ve learned that head-hopping should be avoided if we want to maintain a strong connection between the reader and the characters, and we’ve learned that just calling something omniscient doesn’t solve the head-hopping problem. This brings up the obvious question: How do we avoid head-hopping? The answer might be different […]
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If we don’t want to waste time writing a story that will never get anywhere, we have to make sure we’ll be able to complete it. And guess what? It’s not completed when we, as writers, think it is. Going from seed idea to completion happens over two stages. So […]
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How were your holidays? Was Santa good to you? I got a Kindle and quality time with my family, so short of getting an agent and book contract, my Christmas couldn’t have been any better. As I mentioned last time, whether or not we’re disappointed often depends on what we’re […]
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Last time, we looked at a simple list for What Makes a Female Character Strong based on The Female Character Flowchart. But if that list is so simple, why does it seem so difficult to create a strong character? Why do so many fail and fall into stereotypes? Maybe because […]
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In my last post, we had a lively discussion in the comments that prompted me to think about things authors do to trick readers. Some of these are good and some of them I call “cheap author tricks”. What makes the difference? Whether or not the trick is faked. We […]
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