Straight talk from the sisters about blood, sweat and ink
Last week I blogged about the Hook vs Plot Twist Conundrum and realized it would be a good exercise to take some books off my shelf and read the jackets to learn more about what makes a good hook. After perusing my collection of YA and MG novels, I decided all good hooks had these …
Continue reading “4 Components of a Good Hook”
If we were having coffee, I would meet you at a café. Unfortunately, I have a sick kid at home. Nothing serious, but I wouldn’t want to expose you to the sniffles when you have projects under deadline. You dive right into a slab of chocolate decadence that would normally take both of us to …
Continue reading “Coffee Share: A Giddy Fangirl Version”
Character mapping is a technique I use on every project I write. These simple flow charts keep track of all the interconnected relationships in my books and help me build more complexity into those relationships. I love including lots of secondary characters. Out of personal necessity, I developed a quick method for making character maps. …
Continue reading “6 Easy Steps to Great Character Mapping”
Last month I wrote about a story’s hook. And two weeks ago Robin wrote about reversals, the big and the small. For the purpose of this post, I’m talking about the big type of reversal – the plot twist! I’ll explain how I got twists and hooks mixed up and how to tell them apart. To refresh, a HOOK …
Continue reading “The Hook vs Plot Twist Conundrum”
If we were having coffee, I would tell you with a gleam in my eye, that this week marked the end of an era! I have won the Battle of the Blackberries. Yes, it was a bitter war, fraught with injury: the cut on my nose, the thorns under my nails, the blisters on my …
Continue reading “If We Were Having Coffee: The Battle Recap”
Every writer wants to create prose packed with energy and vitality. They know dull, lifeless writing disappoints the reader. Tired sentences are often the cornerstone of bad prose. They disrupt the flow and bore the reader. Take these tests and find out if your sentences pass, or if you’re writing tired sentences. Same Sentence Starts: …
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For those of us in the northern hemisphere, February is a brutal, soul-sucking, mind-numbing month of misery. It’s so damn cold. And dark. And depressing. If you live in the city, all the pretty white snow has turned to salty grey sludge. If you live in the country, you’re probably buried up to your eavestroughs …
Continue reading “3 Steps to Beat the Winter Writer Blahs”
If we were having coffee here in Toronto, we’d probably be strolling around outside, because for the first time in two weeks the temperature is not in the negative double digits. Today is a positively spring-like -4 degrees Celsius! During our obligatory Canadian chit-chat about the weather, I’d tell you that in the middle of …
Continue reading “Weekend Coffee Share – Writer Brain Freeze”
Today Write On Sisters is taking part in 1000 Voices Speak for Compassion, a movement intended to flood the internet with 1000 blog posts on this important topic. You can learn more about the movement on the founder’s website: http://yvonnespence.com/. And onTwitter at the hashtag #1000speak. Compassion. How can we expect a single word to sum …
Continue reading “Compassion: The Writer’s Gift”
One of the most important scenes in any book is the midpoint reversal. A reversal is an event that creates a fresh complication for the protagonist. It increases the stakes and sends the story off in a new direction. The reversal is the backbone of the classic three-act structure. If you don’t know what the …
Continue reading “4 Tips for Writing Reversals”