Story settings serve as the backdrop, providing a tangible environment in which characters interact and events unfold. Most settings are realistic and straightforward, providing physical attributes of necessary locations in the story. But writers can raise stories to a higher level by employing symbolic and archetypal settings that go beyond mere description to act as […]
March 26, 2018 by 66 Comments How to Become a Writer7 Frequently Asked Writing Questions
The amazing thing about being a writer is that you get to be part of a writing community. Especially now, in the Internet age, you have access not just to the writings of the great minds who have gone before, but also to the shared wisdom, common sense, commiseration, and encouragement of all your contemporaries. If […]
January 4, 2016 by 47 Comments Story SettingsMost Common Mistakes Series, Pt. 47: Ineffective Setting Descriptions
You can’t write a good setting without a good description. That’s the way it rolls. In written literature, what is setting if not description? How do you convey it without description of some sort? For something so relatively intuitive, setting descriptions can end up being surprisingly tricky to detail effectively. For one thing, you have […]
May 24, 2015 by 43 Comments ThemeStories That Matter: 5 Necessary Factors for Weighty Fiction
What is weighty fiction? I would argue that it is, almost unto itself, the definition for stories that matter. It’s the opposite of fluffy fiction (which isn’t to say there’s anything wrong with fluff–we all enjoy a fair share of that as well). Most authors want to write something that matters. Even if we’re never going to […]
March 6, 2015 by 21 Comments Story Settings3 Must-Know Ways for Creating Meaningful Settings in Your Novel
Sad but true, setting in novels is mostly ignored. It’s as if writers feel they must sacrifice attention to setting on the altar of getting the story moving, but nothing could be further from the truth. The settings in your novel serve a number of very powerful functions in your scenes, and that’s why setting is an […]
November 2, 2014 by 19 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 35: Random Story Elements
Even the simplest of stories aren’t simple. Most of them feature dozens of characters, settings, POVs, themes, conflicts–and on and on. A good story is made up of more working parts than most of us can wrap our little brains around in any one moment. Sometimes all these many working parts of the story can get away from us. […]
March 14, 2012 by 3 Comments CharactersWhat Do Your Character’s Possessions Tell Readers?
The items we choose to spend our hard-earned money on tell a lot about us. The possessions with which we surround ourselves in our homes, leave inside our vehicles, and pack into our office spaces often present an interesting view of our personalities and values. When we view someone else’s possessions, we instantly and unconsciously […]
November 16, 2011 by 5 Comments Story SettingsHow to Decide if You Should Use a Real-Life Setting in Your Story
If you’re a speculative author, you probably don’t give a second thought to creating settings out of thin air. We create whole planets when our stories demand them. But even authors writing within the confines of the “real world” are sometimes confronted with the choice to use an existing setting or make one up. This […]
