A story’s voice is always a hot topic among writers. What is it? How does it work? How can you get one? The difficulty in teaching about a story’s voice is that it’s one of those “you know it when you see it” things. Recently, I encountered a powerful example of voices that work—and voices […]
March 19, 2014 by 35 Comments NarrativeIs Your Story’s Tone Lying to Readers?
We might define your story’s tone as its attitude. More than that, it’s a guide for readers to help them determine their attitude while reading your story. As such, you have to set your story’s tone right from the beginning. Funny, cheeky, sad, dark, cynical, hopeful? What’s your story’s tone? Even more importantly, does your […]
January 10, 2014 by 18 Comments NarrativeWe Are All Sci-Fi Writers: Making Use of Time Travel in Writing
As a writer of speculative fiction, I’m wary of time travel as a narrative tool. It occupies this strange place where it somehow both makes things easier and makes things more complicated. Take Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I love the “time turner” sequence. It does a great job of resolving the major […]
December 18, 2013 by 29 Comments NarrativeHow Authors Kill Suspension of Disbelief by Calling Attention to Themselves
This week’s video discusses the pros and cons of in-jokes and how to avoid using them to kill suspension of disbelief. Video Transcript: I’m totally a fan of in-jokes, the little nods to shared knowledge or experiences that make those in the know feel just a little extra awesome for being able to pick up […]
October 13, 2013 by 38 Comments NarrativeAre You Benefiting From the Intimacy of Pronouns?
Pronouns are those clever little inventions that allow us to replace nouns and avoid clunky repetition. How awkward would it be if we had to mention our character Col. Daniel Fitzgerald the Elephant Trainer by name five times in one paragraph? Thanks to the pronoun, we only have to mention him once at the beginning […]
June 12, 2013 by 21 Comments NarrativeIs Your Story Suffering From the Montage Effect?
This week’s video warns against summarizing your story’s best scenes. Video Transcript: There’s a section I’d say, oh, about halfway through the remake of Red Dawn, in which the surviving young people put on their game faces and start figuring out how to take the battle back to the enemy. Under the direction of their Marine leader, […]
April 17, 2013 by 15 Comments NarrativeHow to Use Stream of Consciousness
This week’s video answers a viewer’s question about the uses and practicality of stream of consciousness. Video Transcript: One of you asked that I do a video on the technique of stream of consciousness and its best applications. “Stream of consciousness” is the term applied to a form of narrative that’s found in deep POVs. […]
April 3, 2013 by 23 Comments Narrative5 Signs You Might Be a Windbag
This week’s video discusses the problems of overly long books and how to avoid them. Video Transcript: I love long books: those big fat hardbacks that are too heavy to even hang onto, and you just have to let ’em flop open in your lap. There is something so delicious about being immersed in an […]
February 8, 2013 by 48 Comments NarrativeThe Secret to Show, Don’t Tell
Gone are the days of the long narrative passages we used to see in novels written by greats like Dickens and Steinbeck. Even though literary prose is still highly praised and found in many bestselling commercial novels, the trend over the last few decades has been to “show, not tell.” Meaning, readers prefer scenes in which they are watching […]
July 11, 2012 by 18 Comments NarrativeHave You Set the Right Tone for Your Story?
Tone is one of those things, along with author “voice,” that can be difficult for us get our heads around since to some extent it just happens. But tone, even more than voice, is something we can—and should—deliberately consider and plan for the good of our stories. Think of tone as sort of like a […]
