Ever had a critique partner or editor tell you, “This isn’t realistic”? It’s a valid complaint. Novels are facsimiles of real life. They must mimic that life with enough realism to allow readers to suspend their disbelief and invest themselves in characters and plot scenarios that far exceed their own personal experiences. In order to connect […]
March 13, 2011 by 50 Comments Story SettingsAre You Asking These Important Questions About Your Fantasy Settings?
Fantasy settings are special. In many genres, the setting is little more than a necessary backdrop, culled from the author’s life or research. For example, before writing my portal fantasy Dreamlander, my experience with historical fiction had allowed me to drop my characters into real-life settings. I didn’t have to create settings; all I had […]
January 5, 2011 by 26 Comments Researching Your NovelAre You Writing What You Know?
Many writers rebel against the oft-quoted command about “writing what you know.” My automatic response to this stricture is the rhetorical question, “Why on earth would I want to write what I know? I live what I know. When I write, I want to explore people I’ve never met, places I’ve never seen, and situations […]
November 17, 2010 by 11 Comments Writing LifeWhy Authors Must Be Honest
As a writer, you will often need to address issues that make you uncomfortable. Whether it’s violence, questions of morality, or thematic elements, the nature of conflict inherent to fiction means you will often forced to write about hard subjects. Sometimes, it can be tempting to write your way around these issues, to whitewash or […]
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 […]
