Nothing keeps me reading like secrets. In fact, I might even venture to say that nothing is more important to a good plot than the ability to keep a secret. The delicate art of hiding, hinting at, and revealing secrets is not only the essence of a good mystery or suspense story. It’s also the… Continue reading Can You Keep a Secret?
Talking about the Weather
I keep hearing people say that yet another detail you should never include in your fiction-writing is reference to the weather. Nobody wants to hear about it, they say. Just get straight to the action, don’t bother setting the scene, nobody has the patience for that, just go, go, go. And most importantly, never… Continue reading Talking about the Weather
On Children and Families
Here’s something to know: if you can’t write about children, don’t. Children are extremely complex creatures. Though everyone has been one, some have them, some work with them, and others are barely not them, they’re still some of the most difficult people to portray realistically. I see it all the time, even in ‘real’… Continue reading On Children and Families
A Word on Editing
First of all, happy Halloween. So. I’m in the process of publishing my first trilogy, as you know. Since I was going to be putting a lot of time (it won’t be available until March of ’15) and money (I’m subsidy publishing, so I’m out $2,000) into the project, I thought it would be in… Continue reading A Word on Editing
“Realistic” Dialogue
For me, one of the hardest things to master has been the art of writing dialogue. This comes up all the time in discussions of writing. Despite the fact that we hear and engage in dialogue every day, when it comes to putting it down on paper, we tend to give up on writing and… Continue reading “Realistic” Dialogue
Publishing Update
I’ll break from my fiction advice series for a moment to tell you that I’m still hard at work on subsidy publishing my first three novels, The Stardrift Trilogy. I’m not absolutely certain that I would advise subsidy publishing after what I’ve been through, but on the other hand, I’ve run up against a great deal of… Continue reading Publishing Update
Creating a character to drive the plot
One of my favorite parts of writing novels is making up the people who will populate it. I don’t understand those authors who seem to use the same basic types for every novel they write. I will admit that there are people that just end up turning up in different roles with slightly different… Continue reading Creating a character to drive the plot
You Are What You Read
Some of the information in this post relates back to former posts, such as “How Not to Write Like A Girl…or a Guy.” You’ll notice when a person is asked to write a creative work, they’ll often fall back on what they know for inspiration. In other words, what they read. I’ll use myself… Continue reading You Are What You Read
Voices
Think about the people you know. When you start a conversation with one of your friends, you have certain expectations. You’re familiar with the kinds of things they say in various situations, and how they say them. You tend to have a good idea of how they converse. You can tell when they’re in a… Continue reading Voices
Dictionary and Thesaurus
One of the easiest ways to make your writing stronger and more artistic is to broaden your vocabulary. It’s natural for people to know the definitions of a great many words in their own language and quite a few in others, but the percentage that we actually use in speech or writing is pretty measly.… Continue reading Dictionary and Thesaurus