Yesterday I list a few reasons why you should avoid using dream sequences in your novel, but just like anything else, there are no absolutes in writing. While you should generally avoid including characters’ dreams in your fiction, there are a few times when it’s okay. It basically comes down to these three thing: Does […]
4 Reasons to avoid dream sequences
In a post last year I listed a few ways to not start your novel. The first thing I listed in that post was dream sequences. I’ll still argue that if you open your story or novel with a dream, you’d better have a darn good reason for it. (Disclaimer: one of my WIP novels […]
What to do when you get stuck in the middle of your novel
I was making decent progress on a novel I had been working on. It’s got a solid outline mapping out a few of the major characters arcs and the overlying plot. But a little over a third of the way in, I realized something terrible. The scene I happened to be typing was…boring. It felt […]
Five Links Friday 1/20/17
It’s Friday and you know what that means? Five Links Friday! Give ’em a look. 1. Let’s start with a look at freelancing by Kirsty Stuart at Freelance Writers Online with What My Driving Instructor Taught Me About Being a Freelance Writer. 2. Here’s an interesting article from The Guarding looking at The Da Vinci Code […]
Where’s the conflict?
Three Types of conflict, plus(?) We can all remember learning about conflict in literature when we were in high school. The classic three types of conflict are: Man vs. Man. Man vs. Nature. Man vs. Self. You can also add Man vs. Society, but I would argue that that isn’t really any different than Man […]
When it’s okay to tell
While the long-standing mantra in fiction writing is show, don’t tell, are there ever times when telling is just as good as (or even better than) showing? I would argue that, yes, there are. And yesterday, in my post about showing, not telling, I even mentioned that there are a few times when telling is […]
Develop your characters by getting to know them
Shallow characters with little development can be one of the most common causes of rejections. The person on the other side of the page (whether agent, editor, or reader) wants to see that the characters are real people, with real lives, living though (and preferably influencing) the events of the story. So how do you […]
Five Links Friday 12/30/16
It’s the final Five Links Friday of the year, and this time I thought I’d try something different. I picked some random sites and got their picks for best books of the year in various genres. Hope you enjoy, and I hope you decide to pick a few of these up soon! 1. Let’s start […]
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