Choosing the Right POV

30 Oct

One of the biggest decisions you have to make before you begin writing a story is through whose eyes are you going to tell the story. For those writers who invent their characters first, and then build their stories around those characters, choosing the POV is an easier task. But what if the story–or at least the premise—came first? How do you know who would be the most effective POV character? What if you’re using multiple POVs, and have more than one to choose from for a specific scene?

The Character Sympathy Hack

01 Apr

Today while driving I listened to the most recent episode of Writing Excuses, one of my favorite writing podcasts. The episode was titled Three Pronged Character Development, and you NEED to listen to it.

Brainstorming, Pt 2.

16 Jul

Jumping back in where we left off in Brainstorming, Pt 1, we’re in the middle of brainstorming a premise for our hypothetical fantasy novel. Spaghetti strand #3 is a good one, but just for fun we’re going to go back and check out the others. WOMEN IN POWER – Why would a feudal society be controlled by women? 1. Women …

Brainstorming

15 Jul

Some people just don’t know how to brainstorm. Jeff is one of those people–brilliant in many other ways, but with no natural gift for brainstorming. Recently, I spoke with another writerly friend who struggles the same way. At first, I was rather shocked. What do you do when you can’t brainstorm? Do you just wait for a brilliant idea to …

The Dreaded Sag

10 Apr

This is a post about writing, I promise. Since I write fantasy, I know a lot about killing tension. Fantasy and other spec-fic writers have a ton of information and backstory to convey, and more often than not this results in the story coming to a screeching halt. Epic fantasy, in particular, tends toward long, drawn-out ‘saggy bits’ that can …

Writing the Middle

24 Aug

A lot of writers are good at beginnings–starting off with a bang. Then there are plenty of writers who are masters of endings, knowing how to tie things up in a way that is both dramatic and satisfying. I rarely come across anyone who favors the middle section of a story. In my experience, this is the point where I …

The Great Escape

23 Aug

A subject that came up between writing friends… how do you deal with the “escape scene”? Imprisonment of some sort is a much loved staple of the classic adventure story. So what makes a “good” escape, and what makes a “bad” one? How much detail, as a writer, should you go into when putting an escape into the story? Lets …