This week’s video discusses the pros and cons of 1st-person POV vs. 3rd-person POV in order to help you make the right decision for your book. Video Transcript: Few decisions are more crucial to your story than that of point of view (or POV). This is a multi-faceted decision, involving the questions: Who’s going to […]
December 1, 2013 by 45 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes: Weak Character Voice
Voice. It’s one of those elusive elements in fiction that everyone talks about—and no one can quite define. We all nod sagely when agents and editors harp on it, but secretly we’re hoping no one asks us to explain how to actually create it. And just when we think we’ve figured it out for ourselves […]
July 31, 2013 by 31 Comments CharactersWhen Not to Give an Interesting Character a POV
One of the toughest decisions for any book is which and how many characters should be given POVs. Often, writers seem to just dive in and write whatever POV is handiest for any particular scene, without considering how this will affect the book as a whole. One of the tip-offs of a savvy author is […]
April 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment Chapter BreaksAre Your Scene Breaks Rude?
Aside from making certain chapter and scene breaks are scintillating enough to keep readers reading, most writers don’t give scene breaks too much thought. But we should. Chapter and scene breaks can often show a lack of courtesy from the author toward the readers. And if shunning those good manners your mother drilled into you […]
April 3, 2013 by 23 Comments Narrative5 Signs Your Book Is Too Long
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? Yum. There is something so delicious about being immersed in an amazing story and knowing you have three hundred pages still to go before you reach the […]
March 13, 2013 by 32 Comments Characters3 Ways to Make Multiple POVs Equally Interesting in Your Story
It can be tricky to write a story that features multiple POVs. Not only must you create unique voices and arcs for every character to whom you give a point of view, you must also manage the sheer logistical problem of juggling all these people. And then there’s the rather scary possibility that readers may […]
February 24, 2013 by 57 Comments Structuring Your NovelStructuring Your Story’s Scenes, Pt. 12: Frequently Asked Questions
Once authors grasp Scene* structure, their whole approach to storytelling can become clearer and more refined. At first blush, it can be a subject that takes a while to fully grasp and, as a result, can spawn all kinds of questions. But all you clever Wordplayers seem to have caught on without so much as […]
January 13, 2013 by 21 Comments Structuring Your NovelStructuring Your Story’s Scenes, Pt. 6: Variations on the Scene
The great thing about structure is that it provides a solid framework for your story, while still presenting endless possibilities. This is just as true of the Scene* as it is of the larger plot structure that guides your story as a whole. Now that we’ve concluded our exploration of the first part of the […]
October 24, 2012 by 15 Comments CharactersWhen Not to Use Your Antagonist’s POV
It can sometimes be tricky to figure out which scenes are best told from the antagonist’s point of view. In general, I prefer a minimalist approach to antagonist POVs, mostly because your standard bad guy tends not to have all that much to add to the story from an internal perspective. In most stories, your […]
September 26, 2012 by 28 Comments Point of ViewYet Another Pitfall of Multi-POV Stories
I want to start this week’s post with a disclaimer. As you can tell from the title, this is going to be yet another harangue on the dangers of multi-POV fiction. However, none of this is to say multi-POV fiction is inherently bad or wrong. I love multi-POV fiction. Every single one of my books […]
