Watching Out for Redundancy in Our Story
Let’s say this only once: Repetition and redundancy in our writing is a problem, but we can learn how to avoid the issue.
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Backstory: Avoid Info Dumping by Making It Essential: Part 5 — Guest: Kris Kennedy
Once we know what our character’s backstory makes them think they could never do, we know how to show their path of change and growth over the story.
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Backstory: Avoid Info Dumping by Making It Essential: Part 4 — Guest: Kris Kennedy
A character’s backstory reveals what they thought they could never do, which gives us ideas for our plot and making them face their fears.
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Backstory: Avoid Info Dumping by Making It Essential: Part 3 — Guest: Kris Kennedy
A character’s backstory can be mined to add more emotion to our stories, such as by layering how their backstory’s defining moment affected them.
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Backstory: Avoid Info Dumping by Making It Essential: Part 2 — Guest: Kris Kennedy
A character’s false belief is central to a story’s internal arc, and the defining moment in a character’s backstory is key to creating that false belief.
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Backstory: Avoid Info Dumping by Making It Essential: Part 1 — Guest: Kris Kennedy
Backstory helps readers connect to our characters and provides context for their actions, but how can we make it compelling and avoid boring information dumps?
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How Can We Make Scenes Feel Stronger with Sequels?
Is a scene’s sequel—the reaction to a scene’s events—part of the scene? Or are they ever independent (and if so, how do we make them stronger)?
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“A Leap of Faith” in Fiction and in Life
Near the end of a story the protagonist often takes “a leap of faith.” How can we make our protagonist’s leap feel earned and strengthen our story’s theme?
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Can Common Writing Advice Be Wrong?
There’s no “one right way” in writing, so how should we approach writing advice if even the most frequently shared advice is often wrong?
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Story Tropes: Making Them Resonate
Tropes are often seen as lazy writing, but they can be good for our story. How can we make tropes meaningful and not cliché?
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