How to Improve Our Story with Action Beats
For dialogue attribution, action beats are more flexible than dialogue tags for our writing, adding details to our story and immersing readers in the scene.
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How Should We Format Non-English Words?
As authors and audiences have diversified, it might be time to look at the standards for formatting non-English words and explore some of our options.
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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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Character Internalization: To Italicize or Not to Italicize?
A common question in writing forums asks when we should italicize a character’s thoughts. How should we format our characters’ internalizations?
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Writing Craft: How Point-of-View Affects Dialogue
We often want to share both characters’ reactions during dialogue. How can we do so without causing point-of-view, head-hopping, or attribution issues?
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What’s Your Personal Story?
Many are struggling with anxiety, but stories have power in a crisis. Beyond the stories we write, there’s also the story we tell ourselves about our life.
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Unreliable Narrators: The Pros and Cons
Let’s talk unreliable narrators: What can they do for our story, how can we create them, and what are the pros and cons of using them?
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Do You Read Recently Published Books?
Should writers read current books in their genre? Some say this is common sense, but others think it’s controversial. Why should we read recent books?
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Developing a Beat Sheet into an Outline — Guest: Marty C. Lee
To discover the best drafting process for us, we might need to experiment.
Today, Marty C. Lee shares how she develops story beats into a chapter-by-chapter outline.
Story Conflict: It’s Not as Simple as We Think — Guest: L. Deborah Sword
How can we include conflict—and conflict resolution—between our characters without relying only on fighting? Check out L. Deborah Sword’s insights.
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