Every segment of a story offers its own challenges, but perhaps none leaves writers more bewildered than the second act. Beginnings and endings are tough to get right, but at least we have a checklist of things to accomplish. The middle of the story, on the other hand, is a yawning blank. We feel like we’re entirely on our […]
November 27, 2011 by Leave a Comment PodcastAction and Reaction in Scene Structure: The Two Pistons Powering Your Story
Your story is a precision machine. If you were to take the shiny cover off this machine, what you would find inside would be an intricate mass of nuts, bolts, gears—and an engineer only knows what else. At the heart of it all, you’d find two huge pistons running the show. One of those pistons […]
August 21, 2011 by 72 Comments CharactersCaptain America’s 10-Step Guide to Writing a Likable Hero
Make me like your characters, and I will follow them to the center of the earth. I will fight with them in the trenches. I will slog through bogs, brave tsunamis, and face down volcanoes for them. If I like your characters, I won’t just read your book, I’ll ache when it’s over, buy it […]
August 3, 2011 by 8 Comments NarrativeThe Simplest Trick for Avoiding Info Dumps
Sometimes authors are faced with the necessity of avoiding info dumps while feeding the reader large chunks of information via internal narrative. The problem, of course, is that, faced with pages of straight narrative in solid blocks of text, readers often grow restless. Vital as the information may be, readers want to get back to […]
June 19, 2011 by 11 Comments Writing LifeSave Readers From Boredom: 5 Fool-Proof Preventatives
The bored reader is the writer’s worst nightmare. Angry readers we can tolerate—some writers even cultivate them—because anger at least indicates emotional involvement. Boredom, however, indicates only apathy. The scary part of all this is that we don’t always realize when we’re being boring. I once turned over to a beta reader a handful of […]
May 22, 2011 by 45 Comments NarrativeThe Kung Fu Panda Guide to Writing Action Scenes
You don’t have to love kung fuuuuuuu to enjoy a good action scene, but you do need to understand the basics of the action scenes scene if you’re going to blind readers from overexposure to your action awesomeness. Fight scenes, chase scenes, and other action extravaganzas appear in stories of every genre, so consider the […]
May 18, 2011 by 35 Comments CharactersWhy You Should Spend More Time on Character Development Than Action
Authors sometimes feel pressured to dive right into the action of their stories—at the expense of important character development. Because the last thing we want to do is write a boring story, we sometimes overreact by piling on explosions, fight sequences, and high-speed car chases to the point we’re unable to spend important time developing […]
February 15, 2011 by 8 Comments Beginning Your BookThe 3 Integral Components of a Story’s Beginning
Today, I’m honored to be hosted by Larry Brooks on his fabulous site Storyfix. Be sure to stop by his site to read my guest post “The 3 Integral Components of a Story’s Beginning.” Below is a sneak peek: Beginnings are tough for a number of reasons, not least among them the fact that we’re wading blind into […]
January 19, 2011 by 25 Comments CharactersHow to Make Readers Feel Your Characters’ Emotions
I’m going to go out on a limb and speculate that your story forces your character to experience some pretty deep emotions. They might fall in love, or undergo the agony of a family member’s death, or even be wracked by guilt. Whatever the case, how do you go about portraying those emotions so powerfully […]
October 24, 2010 by 27 Comments NarrativeUse Motion to Spice up Your Scenes
Ever had one of those days when you sit down at your computer, only to find your character twiddling his thumbs? I was having one of those days last week. Chapter seven of my work-in-progress features all kinds of exciting conflict, including a long-awaited confrontation between two friends-turned-enemies. I got to introduce a fabulous new […]
