When I start a new story I write for dialogue and action. I try to keep in mind what the character is sensing and include those nuances as often as I can, but mostly I wait and layer it in during the second draft phase. If done well, using the five senses should be seamless …
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Creating Names for Historical Fiction
What’s in a name? Shakespeare asked the question and we as fiction writers know the answer, the name is everything! Well maybe not everything, but critical, as names set the tone and define how readers view characters. Do we expect P. G. Wodehouse’s character Bertie Wooster to be an esteemed mathematician? Most assuredly, not. As …
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Basic Story Beats of The Hunger Games (based on the “Save The Cat” beat sheet)
I picked HUNGER GAMES as the first novel to break down into the Basic Story Beats because I knew it had all the elements in chronological order. After all, I’d read the novel thrice and was familiar with the story. Though I was shocked to find that the Debate didn’t actually happen on the page, …
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Rock That Opening Scene
Writing YA teaches you an important tenet. Teens are impatient. They crave quick results along with action, high stakes, energy, conflict, dialogue. When writing for teens you need to grab them by the throat and squeeze, tight. (Sort of what you want to do them in real life every now and again.) But really, doesn’t …
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Walking the Tightrope: Embodying yesteryear, while embracing today’s reader
When you write historical fiction, you face great scrutiny. The tiniest mistake, or an over abundance of details, and you will generate comments. Angry heated comments. In a sense, you are always walking a tightrope between crafting authentic sounding prose and creating intelligible prose. One wrong foot and everything comes crashing down. If you want …
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Outlining – Method 1: Basic Story Beats
Just as there are many ways to write a novel, there are many ways to outline a novel. You can use all the methods, one of the methods, or none of the methods. The choice is yours! Go nuts with the freedom! Myself, I use all of the outlining methods I will explain in the …
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A Stellar Opening Sentence
Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a very sad fairy princess. I’ve accepted the painful truth. I’ve pretty much ruined reading for most of my gal pals. Eventually they bounce back, but each of them has admitted that after listening to me ramble on about the elements of great …
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You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy: How to use literature to build your fiction vocabulary
The ability to mass produce books gave birth to the popular novel, the Bronte Sisters, George Sand and perhaps one of the best-loved novelists of all time, Jane Austen. Since Austen’s first book was released over two centuries ago, people have studied her work. We love her books because they’re packed with social humor and …
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5 Reasons to Outline Your Novel
There are writers who come up with an idea and just start writing and see where the story takes them. There are writers who mull over a story in their minds for months or years before they start writing. There are writers who write short stories and use those to create a novel. Then there …
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Avoid Rejections by Making Sure Your MS is Agent Worthy
So, you’ve written a novel. Let’s admit it. Writing a book is hard. How many people have told you they’ve been thinking of writing a book too. And they say it like they mean it. But they don’t. And writing may be hard, but editing is downright painful; and knowing when you “finished” is nearly …
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