Compelling fiction is driven by scene. We can feel omnipotent when writing a fictional scene, wielding complete control over every detail, every action, every sensory experience. But there are limits to that power; what we include must seem real to the readers. Creating a sense of the “real” is a particular challenge for writers of historical fiction, who must stay […]
June 20, 2012 by 11 Comments DescriptionHow to Improve Your Story With Specificity
Today, I want to ask you a question. What is the single greatest contributing factor in bringing your prose to life? Since you’ve probably already read the title to this post, you probably already know the answer is specificity. So specificity—what exactly am I talking about, and why is it so great? What I’m talking […]
April 20, 2011 by 40 Comments DescriptionHow to Bring Your Writing to Life With the Telling Detail
In fiction, authors aren’t always able to sketch every detail of a character’s actions, feelings, appearance, and surroundings. Particularly in the current trend of minimalistic descriptions, we’re lucky to get away with even two paragraphs of description. This can present quite a problem for authors who want to paint a vivid picture in their readers’ […]
November 28, 2010 by 8 Comments DescriptionThe Pros and Cons of Writing Description
“Nothing bores me faster than description.” You’ve probably heard readers make that comment. Perhaps you’ve even made it yourself. In the face of the modern impatience with pages (or even paragraphs) of descriptive narrative, it’s easy for writers to overreact and decide to avoid description altogether. After all, you can’t afford to do anything that […]
November 3, 2010 by 10 Comments Story Settings2 Rules of Creating a Fabulous Setting
Setting is sometimes the neglected stepchild of the writing world. We lavish attention on our characters and plot, but sometimes forget how powerful a fabulous setting can be. Some genres, particularly those that fall within the realm of speculative fiction (fantasy and science fiction), tend to give more attention to setting, simply because their stories […]
September 12, 2010 by 38 Comments Researching Your NovelResearch: When in Doubt, Make It Up
Writers have mixed opinions on research. Some love it; some hate it. Either way, you can’t deny its necessity. If you want to present realistic settings and authentic characters, you have no choice but to go digging for answers. But what happens when answers are nowhere to be found? I’m a bit of a research […]
August 4, 2010 by 15 Comments DescriptionHow to Use Details to Enhance Readers’ Suspension of Disbelief
Truth may be stranger than fiction, but fiction is plenty strange, especially in this era of vampires, dragons, time travel, and who knows what else! Because readers are accustomed to far-out premises that stretch reality all out of shape, most won’t blink an eye at a story that features any number of unbelievable phenomena. But […]
June 30, 2010 by 29 Comments Story SettingsUse All 5 Senses to Bring Your Setting to Life
Unlike movies, which are inherently visual and auditory, your written fiction depends solely on your power of description to evoke reaction of the senses from your readers and bring your setting to life. This is tricky business, since you want to bring the scene to life, but you don’t want to bore readers with lengthy explanations. So […]
May 23, 2010 by 34 Comments DescriptionGenerality Is the Death of the Novel
Fiction is about specifics. In real life, you may get away with being ridiculously vague: “Gimme that thingamajig over there.” But the only reason this works is because the specifics are already staring both you and your listeners in the face. In fiction, however, you must hit the specifics and hit them hard. Years ago, […]
October 4, 2009 by 16 Comments DescriptionGood Writers Are So Lazy, They Make Readers Do All the Work!
This is a guest post by Jason Black. Read any half-dozen writing blogs, and they’ll be full of advice on how to craft dramatic scenes, how to write realistic dialogue, how to create vivid settings, and all that jazz. Add in the need for a compelling hook, character arcs, rising tension and stakes, and it […]
