How Do Story Beats Work in Our Genre?
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 take the major beats of a beat sheet and apply them to our story’s genre.
Pin ItDon’t Believe These Writing Myths: Part Two — Guest: Jeff Lyons
In Part Two, Jeff Lyons shares more of the most common writing myths and the lie and danger for us if we believe them. Learn the truth instead.
Pin ItWhat Are Your Writing Strengths?
In situations where we want to improve—such as writing—we focus our time on analyzing our weaknesses, and that’s necessary to identify how we can reach the next level of expertise. But at the same time, if we fail to recognize our strengths, we might suffer in several ways.
Pin ItDon’t Believe These Writing Myths: Part One — Guest: Jeff Lyons
Some writing advice out there is great, while other tips are misleading, impossible to follow, or just plain wrong. Unfortunately, that bad advice can be shared just as much as the good advice. Today, Jeff Lyons busts some of the most common writing myths.
Pin ItWhen Does Disagreement Become Bullying?
Several situations related to the line between disagreeing and bullying have been swirling through Publishing Land recently, so I want to address the subject while it’s relevant. That said, I’m sharing my opinion in this post, and you might have a different opinion. That’s okay.
Pin ItAntagonists: How to Avoid Boring Villains — Guest: Kristen Lamb
In Kristen Lamb’s guest post series on antagonists, we’ve talked a lot about the non-evil, non-villain style of antagonists. Today we’re finally(!) focusing on the villain and how we can avoid mustache-twirling by giving them depth.
Pin ItAntagonists: What’s Driving Our Story? — Guest: Kristen Lamb
We’ve explored how antagonists act as the conflict-engine for our story, but our Big Boss Troublemaker isn’t in every scene. What keeps the rest of our story going? Kristen’s going to teach us today about scene antagonists.
Pin ItConflict: Why It Isn’t Just about Fighting — Guest: Janice Hardy
We’ve been talking about antagonists lately, and how some writers minimize the conflict in their stories, even though “good fiction is the path of greatest resistance.” In a perfect bit of serendipity, a guest post by Janice Hardy today addresses the most common myth about conflict.
Pin ItAntagonists: The End-All-Be-All of Our Story — Guest: Kristen Lamb
Over the past couple of weeks, Kristen Lamb has been kind enough to let me share her insights on antagonists: what they are, why they help define our story, how to strengthen them, etc. Today, we’re exploring how antagonists create our story from beginning to end.
Pin ItAntagonists: Inner & Outer Demons — Guest: Kristen Lamb
In a “man vs. self” story, we can’t just show a character arguing with themselves. Instead, Kristen shows us how to use a technique like in the movie Black Swan—where the outward antagonists represent the protagonist’s own issues.
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