Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
I have worked as a television screenwriter for most of my adult life, and currently I’m working as a video game writer. Some of WOS’s readers have asked me how to get work as a writer, and I was reluctant to write a post about that because it’s such an individual question. My story is specific …
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Robin told me that in about two weeks stores will shift from back-to-school specials to Halloween masks and décor, which I think is kind of wacky considering summer just started up here in Toronto. But fall is coming and some writers are shifting into Halloween mode too, especially if they are hoping to release a novella or short …
Continue reading “Horror Writing Round-Up”
When I read a book or watch a movie, I always try to figure out what is going to happen. For me, the most enjoyable stories keep me guessing right up to the end. The least enjoyable stories are the ones where I can predict the ending long before the finale. Now, you’re probably expecting …
Continue reading “How To Write Unpredictable Stories”
The most common advice I’ve heard for writing three-dimensional characters is to delve into their backstory, develop their personality profiles, and get to know them as if they are alive and kicking right beside you. Common wisdom seems to support that if the author knows their characters inside and out, then said characters will be …
Continue reading “The Key to Writing 3-Dimensional Characters”
If we were having coffee, we’d be watching the Pan Am Games in my hometown of Toronto. I really want to go see Trampoline, but those tickets have been sold out for a long time. Perhaps we can scalp some? If not, we’ll watch it live on the iPad via the CBC app. In between …
Continue reading “Weekend Coffee Share at the PanAm Games”
Multiple POV means writing separate scenes from the viewpoints of different characters, staying in one character’s POV for an entire scene and not switching to another character’s POV until a new scene. Stories with multiple POVs are difficult to write. I’ve read more books that attempted this technique and failed than books where multiple POVs not …
Continue reading “5 Tests for Writing Multiple POVs”
Recently I was hired to write a video game script. I’ve never written for games, but both the producer and I thought my screenwriting skills would translate well since each medium uses dialogue as a key storytelling device. However, except for dialogue skills, I found out that game writing is pretty much the opposite of …
Continue reading “Screenplays vs Game Scripts: 5 Differences”
As I build my outline, I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a good scene, and that led to these posts: Test That Scene – Is It Essential or Filler? and Test That Scene – Cut or Revise? But what about stringing those scenes together? Is there a test for that? Serendipitously I came …
Continue reading “Test Those Scene Connections – But, Therefore & Then”
Right now I am buried under a game script that is due today. (Note to bosses: not actual script in photo. Don’t worry!) It’s the first thing I’ve ever written that requires nodes and opcodes. I am not a computer programmer, so the learning curve is steep and thus it’s taking me longer than anticipated. …
Continue reading “Reblog: The Starving Artist Lifestyle”
A month ago I wrote a post called Test That Scene – Is It Essential or Filler? The basics of it are this: No Filler Test Question #1 – If deleted, will the reader still be able to follow the story? If yes, you’ve got filler! Question #2 – What is different by the end …
Continue reading “Test That Scene – Cut or Revise?”