Where’s the conflict in every scene?
The question every author has to answer: where’s the conflict in every scene? As we all know by now, without […]
Writing
Posts on the craft of writing
The Writer and the Moral Compass
The pervasive violence in my fantasy-action-adventure got me thinking about the writer and the moral compass. Death as entertainment, spectacle
Character and the Moral Compass
The pervasive thread of violence in my fantasy-action-adventure got me thinking about character and the moral compass. I know it’s
The Art of the Flash Forward
We’re all familiar with the flashback; but what is the art of the flash forward? The flashback takes us back
Story as a Graph
Can you draw your story as a graph? From Freytag to Vonnegut, writers and coaches will tell you stories have
Stained Glass or Plain Glass?
Is your prose stained glass or plain glass? Does it show only the crafted, opaque glass with nothing of the
Acting out the First Act
Acting out the first act is the only way of knowing if your novel opens the right way. There is
The Mid-point Plot-Knot
They want it, they can’t get it, and time is running out; this is the Mid-Point Plot-Knot. This is the
Nine Problems with Magic
Magic defines the fantasy genre, but I have no fewer than nine problems with magic. Sure, you can have fantasy
First-Page Speed-dating
First-page speed-dating; full of nervous anticipation you sit down knowing nothing about the ‘date’ in front of you. Will your