David Farland’s Writing Tips—3 Proving Questions for Big Ideas.
Over the years, I’ve seen a number of authors struggle with ideas for novels. Very often, those ideas mature into books, and sometimes they even become huge bestsellers. But how do you know if you’ve got an idea for a big book? Last week, a young man presented an idea that would work just fine. […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Who is this Story about, really?
When you create a story, perhaps the most monumental decision that you will make is the one regarding your protagonist. How many are there? What ages? Genders? Ethnicities? and so on. The reason that this is important is that by choosing protagonists, you may be limiting your audience. A few years ago, a survey found […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Resonance in Settings
When you write a story, any story, you write within the context of the whole of literature, of everything that has gone before. The choice of words that you use will provide little clues to the story that your readers will often absorb almost instantly as they read. The reader might not consciously recognize an […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Promises to Keep
As a teen, I once read a fantasy novel that had a picture on the cover that showed a wizard fighting with some lizard men. I read the novel, and liked it pretty well, except for one thing: the mage on the cover was too old, and there weren’t any lizard men. I kept thinking, […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Beware of False Suspense
I have a saying, “There are ten thousand right ways to write any story, but there are a million wrong ways to do it.” I use this to point out that lots of things work, but new writers often don’t recognize that some things never work. So let’s talk about one. “Suspense.” Suspense is a […]
Writing Tip: Your Character’s Central Question
The script doctor Michael Hague has pointed out that for every successful motion picture, there is a central question that revolves around the protagonist: “Who are you?” After studying this insight for twenty years, I’m convinced that Michael is right. You usually (because there are always exceptions) can’t write a powerful story of character without […]
Study with Integrity
Last week, a writer told me about how he had written a story several years ago that went on to win a Finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest. He then applied to a university to learn how to write, and his prose had gotten much richer and more powerful, but, increasingly, he no […]
How to Start Off a Story
The first scene can be anything—a funny incident that introduces one of your protagonists, or perhaps an argument that leaves your reader shocked. Maybe you’ll write a scene that will leave your reader admiring your protagonist and cheering for her, or perhaps you’ll introduce your tale with a gruesome murder that will leave the reader horrified but burning with intrigue.
10 Tips for Bringing a Scene to Life (2020 update)
Years ago, I wrote an article on bringing a scene to life—and then I did an exercise based upon my own article. Here are the bare bones of that article. These are techniques and 10 “Tips for Bringing a Scene to Life” 1. Use “Resonators” Especially at the beginning of a tale, use “resonators” to […]
How to Start a Novel
When starting to write a novel, you should keep in mind:
A good opening should promise the reader a powerful emotional impact if he or she reads on.