Writing in Broad Strokes
You should be able to do this with any story. For example, “Escape.” In the movie “The Terminator,” we have a monster from the future appear drop naked to the street. He goes into a biker bar and chooses a biker to steal some clothes from. He then begins to hunt for some woman named Sarah Conner. He starts going through the phone book, and killing anyone by that name.
Why Emotional Beats in an Epic
Part of what makes an epic an epic is that the reader tries to get a panoramic view of life, to experience a wide range of human emotions. I think that Tolkien handled this well in LOTR. He has a lot of warmth and humor and nostalgia in early parts of the story, but then he builds up to terror, despair, and horror. There is some triumph and tragedy and a lingering sense of isolation and remorse for our hero, too.
David Farland Writing Tip: Dream Making
As a storyteller, I make my living as a tour guide of sorts, escorting my audience through vivid dreams. As a guide, I create the setting, with its landscape, history and its wonders. I may suggest entire cultures with imaginary languages and customs. I might develop characters with their own unique habits and ways of […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Those Troublesome Transitions
Many new writers figure out how to write great descriptive scenes, but they don’t know very well how to link them together. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that you open a novel to a scene ten pages in that starts, “Let me explain this to you just once: you stay away from […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips—Three Mistakes in Tone
One of the most common problems I see with new writers is a “mistake in tone.” You know what I mean if you’ve ever played in a band. A new kid comes in, you’re trying to play a song, and he blats out a sour note on a trumpet. The same thing happens in writing. […]
David Farland Writing Tips: Style and Tone
Unfortunately, there is so much covered under the umbrella of style and tone that it would take a good long book to deal with it. In fact, I’ve read several good books on the topic, and I can’t cover much here. The word “style” when used in literary circles refers to all of the unconscious […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Epic Conflicts
Every story needs three basic elements: a character, in a setting, with a conflict. Most instructors will talk about a number of possibilities when choosing a conflict for a story: man versus nature, man versus self, man versus man, or man versus society. Years ago, a Hollywood script doctor named Michael Hague pointed out that […]
Create Powerful Book Openings
Your story begins when you have a character (likeable or not), in a setting (interesting or not), with a problem (and it darned well ought to be a doozy). My mentor Algis Budrys said that as a rule of thumb, if a writer doesn’t have that by page two, then the story most likely isn’t sellable. He’s right. The stories that do well in my competition are the ones that grip me from the first page to the last.
How Do You Know when a Story Is a Winner?
Author Mike Resnick won more Hugo Awards for short stories than any other author. So a couple of years ago, I asked him, “How do you know when you’re writing a story that it is going to be Hugo- or Nebula-award worthy?” His answer was so basic, it surprised me. He said, “Usually, somewhere […]
David Farland’s Writing Tips: Do Overs
Have you ever wished that you could have a “Do Over” in life? Maybe you missed out on a nice business opportunity, or you really wanted to make a great impression on a date and you just blew it. A lot of authors have expressed that desire. A book launch can fail for dozens of […]