I recently had a writer ask me which one of his many ideas he should follow up on. There is no easy answer to that question, because it all depends on the writer’s motivation. Is he wanting to know which one is the most marketable? Well, I can’t exactly predict the market in two to […]
“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.” – Stephen King (not the first person to say it, but perhaps the most ominous) It’s a common piece of advice to give to beginning writers, and it’s been attributed to everyone from Faulkner to Wilde. Slate.com […]
I’m a big believer in the promises-made-to-your-reader philosophy of writing. It’s the idea that readers file away everything you’ve laid out in the first few chapters of your story – and they expect you to follow up on it. To see how this extends through your entire book, see the post back in January where […]
One of my favorite books from the Children’s Lit classes I took in college was Treasure Island. Stevenson stuck with me as an example I wanted to emulate, because nothing in that book is wasted. Every piece of foreshadowing pays off, every bit of character development comes into play by the end, and the father-son […]
We’ve been talking character arcs at SNW, so I wanted to bring out once special kind of arc: the villain arc. A good villain can really elevate your story, so take the time to fully develop all sides of your antagonist. And then think about what makes him dynamic. The Backstory Arc Usually, the main […]
Have you set goals for the coming year? Most of us look at a new calendar, fresh with unspoiled pages, as an opportunity. It’s a reset. A chance to think about what we want to develop in our lives, what we are ready to let go. A story offers your characters that same chance. Kurt […]
Can we be brutally honest? As a writer, you simply cannot be a nice person – at least not when it comes to your characters. There is no quicker way to lose reader interest than to present characters who never face failure or loss, who are never in danger, who never have to make impossible […]
So before I started teaching writing, I was a Youth librarian. And as everybody says, you can take the girl out of the library, but you can’t take the library out of the girl. Especially when it’s someone like me. I was always the one chasing down the kiddos as they were leaving because I’d […]
So as we head towards November, I’m sure a lot of you guys are working out your plot ideas for NaNoWrimo. I hope everything is flowing right along, but in case it’s not, I wanted to do a writing prompt roundup. (If you’re in the DFW area, check the NaNo regional calendar if you want […]
When I do my prewriting classes, I always start with a session on idea generation. Sometimes students will already have a character in mind, or a genre they want to work in, or a few plot events, but I ask them to put that aside and – as a group – work out a brand […]
