Story as a Graph
Can you draw your story as a graph? From Freytag to Vonnegut, writers and coaches will tell you stories have […]
Writing
Posts on the craft of writing
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
Fully Immersive Description
Nothing adds to a sense of place like fully immersive description. Be it fiction or non-fiction, a richly detailed description
Foundations of a Dirty Draft
Working hard to complete Book Three, I’m building on the foundations of a Dirty Draft. But what exactly do I
The Difficult Second Book
If the first book was a whirlwind of inspiration, then the difficult Second book is like a rock band’s “difficult
Want versus Need
In trying to write better characters, it’s taken me a while to define want versus need. Writing coaches bang on