The trick to providing readers with a satisfying story Climax is making certain all the pieces are already there. Stories are like puzzles—giant 5,000-piece puzzles you spread all over your table and spend a year putting together. By the time you only have a handful of pieces left—by the time your story’s Climax is coming […]
July 17, 2011 by 47 Comments Novel EndingsDeus Ex Machina: Latin for “Don’t Do This in Your Story”
By the time you reach the end of your book, you’re sometimes out of steam, sometimes out of ideas, sometimes sick of your story, and sometimes just plain wrong about how to end it. As a result, you might find yourself walking through yellow caution tape into the pothole of deus ex machina before you […]
June 15, 2011 by 1 Comment Novel EndingsThe 4-Part Process for Writing a Phenomenal Story Climax
The best part of the Fourth of July (other than the fried chicken and potato salad, of course) is the fireworks at the end of the day. Everyone looks forward to sundown and the explosions of color that light up the darkness. Your novel’s Climax is like that. Readers will enjoy the preceding chapters (just […]
May 25, 2011 by 14 Comments CharactersHas Your Protagonist Changed? Prove It!
Personal transformations are always at the heart of strong character arcs. Our protagonists are faced with trials that force them to acknowledge their own inadequacies and then, usually, change their ways in a manner that allows them to overcome both their faults and, as a result, the bad guy. This moment of personal revelation and […]
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 4, 2011 by 64 Comments Editing Your NovelThe 4 Most Common Mistakes Fiction Editors See
Wouldn’t it be great if nobody ever needed an editor? If all of our stories and novels appeared in readers’ minds just as beautifully and vividly and succinctly they do in our own? Wouldn’t it be great if the story we think we’ve told were, in fact, the story we’ve told? There are more aspiring […]
December 8, 2010 by 9 Comments Novel EndingsExternal and Internal Conflict: The Killer Combination
A general writing rule of thumb states that every page of your story should contain conflict. But sometimes it can be difficult to think up enough conflict to fill the nooks and crannies. After all, your hero can’t be battling it out with the villain on every single page. So what to do? The secret […]
June 13, 2010 by 33 Comments CharactersCreate Powerful Character Arcs in 6 Steps
The secret to a memorable character isn’t so much creating a strong personality as it is creating a strong character arc. You can come up with the most entertaining, marvelous characters imaginable, but unless you also give them powerful character arcs, their stories will lack depth and power. Character arcs are fundamentally about change. You can […]
August 17, 2008 by 30 Comments Plotting Your Novel6 Ways to Create Riveting Conflict in Your Story
Who says conflict is a bad thing? Who says world peace is the most important goal of humanity? Who says arguing with your little brother when you’re a kid means you’ll grow up to be an ill-mannered ruffian? Not a writer, that’s for sure! Arguably, the single most important tenet of fiction can be summed […]
