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.

Doctor Who’s Storytelling Fail

25 Jul

Wait! Before you groan that I’m ranting about TV rather than talking about writing… this post is ultimately about storytelling, so stick with me! TV takes a distant second to books, for me—but I’m a complete Whovian. Or at least, I was. Well, no, I am—it’s complicated. I’m the sort of person who would wear these with a straight face. … …

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 …

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 …