The best character development is often found in the heart of his personal narrative: his introspective observations and reactions to the events of the story. As I’ve preached many a time, if a character’s not reacting to what’s happening in your story, then what’s happening doesn’t matter. But the irony here is that the eternal balancing act […]
May 17, 2013 by 20 Comments CharactersA Powerful Storytelling Tool: Getting Readers to Fill In Your Character’s Blanks
You know that moment when you’re reading a story and you know what a character is thinking? You’re so in touch with him that you feel it yourself? Wonderful, isn’t it? But this has to be handled with care. There are times when readers are eager to fill the blanks; just as many times, though, they are not. […]
November 9, 2011 by 23 Comments DialogueAre Your Dialogue Beats Repetitious?
Even the most scintillating dialogue scenes require more than just dialogue to stay afloat. They need dialogue beats—and good ones at that. You must pad the characters’ speech with dialogue tags (he said, she whispered, etc.), internal narrative, and body language and action—otherwise known as action beats. Often dialogue beats will flow naturally from the […]
November 6, 2011 by 23 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Giving Readers the Wrong Impression of Your Characters
The wrong choice of just a single word can be enough to give readers a completely different (and from the writer’s viewpoint, wrong) perspective of a character. Even though writers often see our characters in crisp, glorious, mega-wattage detail, we sometimes struggle to share those details with readers. We want readers to see our characters […]
September 4, 2011 by 24 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Nothing Happening in Your Scene
What happens next? is the question we all want to inspire (in breathless tones) from our readers. But in order for something to happen next, something has to happen to begin with. At first glance, that’s a no-brainer, but it’s actually ridiculously easy to write scene after scene in which one big fat stinking hunk […]
February 20, 2011 by 51 Comments Narrative5 Ways to Write Character Thoughts Worth More Than a Penny
One of the key benefits of written fiction is also one of the most difficult techniques to master: the characters’ inner narrative. The inner narrative of the characters—their thoughts put on paper—is the essence of fiction. Mastery of that essence equals mastery, in large part, of the art form of fiction itself. No wonder it’s […]
October 20, 2010 by 21 Comments CharactersKeep Unlikable Characters From Alienating Readers
Because a strong character arc often requires a deep change of personality in the main character, writers are sometimes forced to begin their stories from the rather compromising basis of a main character who is less than likable. In some instances—redemption stories and their ilk, in particular—the main character starts out being a real jerk. […]
September 22, 2010 by 32 Comments DialogueWhy Every Protagonist Needs a Dialogue Buddy
Although some successful novels feature lone-wolf characters who face the world and its challenges by themselves, clever authors will sidestep the pitfall of leaving a main character without someone to talk to for the majority of the book. Your protagonist’s fellow conversationalists can be varied and multitudinous over the course of the book—but usually, you’ll […]
June 16, 2010 by 40 Comments DialogueInfo Dumps Don’t Belong in Dialogue
Dialogue is such a handy little technique that we sometimes try to force it to carry more of a load than it should. One of the loads dialogue should never have to bear is the weight of info dumps. When characters start telling each other things they already know, just to keep the poor ignorant […]
January 24, 2008 by 48 Comments NarrativeThe Do’s and Don’ts of Internal Monologue
Internal monologue is one of the many necessary ingredients used to concoct a complete, well-rounded story. Unfortunately, it’s all too often one of the most abused and overused ingredients. I just finished reading a historical fantasy—which included storms, swordfights, treachery, true love, and all kinds of swashbuckling—that made every promise of delivering a jolly good tale. But […]
