Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Short Story Month continues. Are you excited yet? I hope so! Now that you know, thanks to Heather’s last post, if your story idea is more suited to a short story or a novel, we take this discussion into the grey area between the two by talking about serial fiction. Serials come in many forms, …
Continue reading “3 Advantages & Disadvantages of Writing a Serial”
Not counting my childhood Young Authors books (for a hilarious selection of those click here), I have written only one short story: a grim ghost tale featured in Pen & Muse’s Haunted House showcase. However, I’ve written many television episodes, which resemble short stories in length and substance. Writing a novel, by comparison, is like …
Continue reading “Is Your Idea a Short Story or Novel?”
May is short story month. In honor of the event, Heather and I have a few treats planned this month. Hopefully you are taking part in a contest, or perhaps just letting the event inspire you to dash off a short story (or two) for the writing practice. If so, here are my six favorite …
Continue reading “Six Don’t-Skip Short Story Tips”
Last month it occurred to me that a handful of basic opening scenarios crop up in a large number of stories. I’m not talking about those tropes we’ve all heard about (alarm clocks ringing, watching the sun rise, or waking up from a dream), but situations and specific types of events writers use to grab …
Continue reading “5 Common Story Openings Done Wrong”
One of the many things I’m learning from writing this blog is that people have different definitions for writing terms. When Robin first wrote a post on reversals, I thought to myself, “Oh, I call those Turning Points!” Perhaps that’s the screenwriting term. But both mean the same thing – a moment where the story …
Continue reading “R is for Reversal”
Questions are what keep readers interested in a story. At every moment in your novel, the reader must want to know the answer to a question, otherwise there’s no reason to keep reading. There are three types of questions in every good story, and I’ll endeavour to give you some tips on how to make …
Continue reading “Q is for Questions”
If you’re a plotter, or if you read Heather’s O is for Outlines post, you know about tentpoles. These are crucial events in every story that give the plot a shape. Pinch points act like the secondary flanking poles on your tent. They prop up the story structure between the first plotpoint and the midpoint, …
Continue reading “P is for Pinch Points”
Narrative is a story’s fuel, and just like rocket fuel, if you use the right amount you head for the stars in style. Add too little, and you get no lift off. Add too much, and we know what happens, and it’s not good. To make matters more complicated, narrative is a compound – POV, …
Continue reading “N is for Narrative”
If you’re a plotter like Heather and I are, you should know about the importance of the midpoint event. It’s one of those important story structure tentpoles Heather will be telling you all about in her O is for Outlining post. The midpoint is when critical new information is introduced to the story and it …
Continue reading “M is for Midpoint”
A few weeks ago I posted on how to use juxtaposition in a setting, as character development and in prose to enhance a scene. Juxtaposition is: [important]The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical effect, suspense, or …
Continue reading “J is for Juxtaposition”