Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
In a novel, the main character must go through a life-changing event that transforms them by end of the book. (For more read What Is Character Change and How to Create Character Change.) With that in mind, it should be easy to know who is my protagonist, right? Just build the novel around whoever has …
Continue reading “How To Choose A Main Character”
I’ve written some sweet romances, but I found I prefer my romance a bit stronger. For whatever reason, I just happen to love writing about sex. Maybe because in real life I love it, too. Back in June, I wrote an initial piece about the romance genre. As recently as August, Sister Caryn considered why …
Continue reading “Romancing the Genre: That “Guilty Little Pleasure””
In the dictionary “caper” is to “dance or skip about in a lively or playful way.” The caper mystery is the one that plays most with the mystery genre definition. Capers fit into the cozy mystery category. Think of the movies, “Topkapi” or “Ocean’s 11.” O. Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” is a classic …
Continue reading “The Mystery of Mysteries: 10 Elements of the Caper Mystery”
The technique of breaking the fourth wall generally applies to plays, TV shows and movies. It means that a character talked directly to the audience. The term originated from the idea that a theater stage is made up of three solid walls, the fourth wall is invisible. The audience looks past this last wall like …
Continue reading “Pros & Cons of Breaking the Fourth Wall”
The halfway point of National Novel Writing Month, for me, is usually where it hits a snag. If you’re snaggy, too, maybe the rest of my NaNo tips will come in handy for you. You might want to re-read the first eight tips. Remind yourself that while 50K sounds like a lot, it’s really just …
Continue reading “Surviving and Thriving: Part 2 NaNoWriMo Tips”
This is my final post in this series. My intent has been to make the case for Fiction as Art. To that end I have expressed my thoughts on the definition of art, the search for aesthetic absolutes in fiction writing, the neuroscience of creativity, and finally, mastery of craft. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed …
Continue reading “The Artist as Master: The Fictional Process”
As you may have figured out from my post last week, 6 Tips for Re-imagining a Classic Story, I’m working on a project for NaNoWriMo that involves a reinterpretation of a classic tale. In my case I’ve decided to tell it a frame story. This is a literary device using a narrative structure to tell …
Continue reading “Tips for Crafting a Frame Story”
This weekend we reviewed three books based on revisited fairy tales. You can read more about that here. In case you didn’t realize it, this is a huge trend in books, movies and TV shows. Some of the hottest projects around are adaptations from characters and stories combed from the pages of literary classics: Grimm, …
Continue reading “6 Tips for Re-imagining a Classic Story”
I was one year old when The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison) was released by Hollywood. I found it in my pre-teen years as a TV offering. Then and there, I fell in love with the idea of ghostly love. Which is kind of weird because we lived in a house …
Continue reading “In the Spirit of Halloween: Ghostly Love in Film and Books”
It’s almost Halloween! So here at Write On Sisters we’ve lined up a week of scary writing tips and tricks. I love scary stories. I grew up reading R.L Stine and Christopher Pike and Lois Duncan. I experienced the teen slasher flick revival that started with the movie SCREAM. I wanted to write my own …
Continue reading “How Writing Horror is like Writing Comedy”