Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Welcome back to Masterplots Theater! So far we’ve covered: – A is for Adventure – B is for Buddy Love – C is for Chosen One And today we tackle Dystopia! Despite the cry of “dystopian stories are sooooo over!” new ones come out every month. It feels to me that dystopia is not just a trend; …
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It’s week two of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, and time for our next installment of Masterplots Theater. Episodes thus far include: – A is for Adventure – B is for Buddy Love If you like focusing on a strong central character, creating clear-cut moral conflicts and enjoy getting down and dirty with …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: C is for Chosen One”
Hope you’re back in your comfy chair and ready for another episode of Masterplots Theater! Perhaps you’ve been contemplating a story idea that has two compelling lead characters and can’t decide which is the true hero. Well, I have good news for you — maybe you don’t have to choose! Today we study a masterplot …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: B is for Buddy Love”
Welcome to Masterplots Theater! Our third year participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Perhaps you’re sitting in a comfy chair right now plotting a new story. It features a brilliant and daring scientist. Your character is short on emotional entanglements, but long on project commitment and wanderlust. You love to research exotic …
Continue reading “Masterplots Theater: A is for Adventure”
Today we bring back one of our favorite guest bloggers, Cindy McCraw Dircks. We first met Cindy about three years ago and it has been a pleasure to watch her journey from first draft to newly agented writer. It’s extra special for Robin since she was an early beta reader on the very project that …
Continue reading “Guest Post: Writing Sci-Fi”
If you were with us last week for Heather’s post on productivity, you know we announced our Blogging from A to Z Challenge theme, Masterplots Theater. Heather and I didn’t coin the term masterplot and I’m not sure who did. However, the idea comes from a familiar writing concept, namely that all stories have been …
Continue reading “Plotting Revenge: Using a Masterplot”
I’m fascinated by story structure, particularly by stories that are not perfectly linear. I love reading parallel plotlines, stream of consciousness narratives and stories with reverse chronology. I’ve experimented with all of these forms. And that means I’ve written a flashforward. A flashforward is a scene that takes place outside of the current timeline of …
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I’m a newbie to hardcore worldbuilding. Up until recently, I’d only developed stories that took place in the real world. I may have put fantastical creatures in the stories, but the setting was Earth as we know it. Now I’m writing a novel that takes place 100 years in the future, still on Earth, but it …
Continue reading “1 Key Question for Worldbuilding (+ A Handy Checklist)”
While you might think anything that tightens a story and trims the word count is good thing, it’s important to realized this does not apply to underwriting. Underwriting is the reverse of overwriting: it’s when the author is too economical with their words, and critical aspects of the story come off as foggy, lacking in logic …
Continue reading “7 Ways Underwriting Sabotages Your Story”
Welcome guest blogger Sara Letourneau! We connected with Sara on Twitter and through the many places she blogs (see bio below). Sara is super friendly, upbeat and knowledgeable, especially about writing fantasy, so we’re thrilled to have her here today to shed some light on the differences and similarities between high fantasy and epic fantasy. Take it …
Continue reading “Guest Post: High Fantasy Vs. Epic Fantasy”