Seven Key First Chapter Questions
Abigail Perry’s Seven Key First chapter Questions are touchstones. They apply not only to opening chapters, but to every chapter […]
how-to
Abandonment Issues and the Feisty Heroine
I realise I have two common themes in my fiction: abandonment issues and the feisty heroine. This feeds directly into
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
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
Want versus Need
In trying to write better characters, it’s taken me a while to define want versus need. Writing coaches bang on
A Strong Opening Chapter
A question or an obsession; how do I write a strong opening chapter? How do I hook the reader and
The Revelation of Misbelief
Book One stalled for a while because I didn’t know how to handle the revelation of misbelief. In my defense,
The Proactivity Scale
A key question in fiction: where does your protagonist sit on the proactivity scale? Do they pursue goals beyond the
Avoiding the Idiot Plot
Avoiding the Idiot Plot: in which characters behave like idiots. Logic and good sense go AWOL. Along with the reader’s