Allow me to be radical for a moment, and reduce the art of fiction to three basic story elements. Take a gander at your bookshelf, maybe even pull a couple titles, and see if you can’t pick out the common threads. (Presumably, your personal library of favorites doesn’t contain any shoddy writing or weak themes, blatant […]
September 6, 2008 by 44 Comments Plotting Your NovelThree Easy Ways You’ve Never Thought of to Keep Track of Time in Your Novel
Do you know, without looking, how much time your novel covers? If the question has just pushed you into the predicament of either scrunching up your face or staring at the ceiling in an effort to tally up your various scenes and arrive a reasonable figure of days, then the answer is probably an unqualified, […]
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 […]
July 20, 2008 by 35 Comments Writing LifeThe Ridiculously Surefire Way to Write the Perfect Novel
Is there such a thing as the perfect novel? And, if so, how does one go about writing it? I think most of us would agree that that the answer to the first question is an indisputable no. Perfection in art is unequivocally subjective. What one reader hails as perfection, another will throw across the […]
June 1, 2008 by 12 Comments ThemeThe All-Important Link Between Theme and Character Progression
Theme is a slippery concept. The prevailing wisdom among writers is that if you apply any deliberate force to your theme, you’ll end up with a heavy-handed Aesop’s fable. On the other hand, a story without a theme is shallow escapism at best and an unrealistic flop at worst. Theme is arguably the single most […]
