Emotional and Intellectual Payoff
Some stories gain power by tapping into the emotions that we felt at a particular age, or during a certain time of our lives. For example, some novels use nostalgia as a powerful draw. I can think of a few extremely popular fantasy novels that hearken back to Tolkien’s work. A few years ago, one […]
Writing Characters
Of all the topics on how to write, I suspect more books have been written on how to create solid characters than on anything else. So there are a lot of great resources out there on how to create characters, and I can’t even touch on every topic that I would like in the space of an article this short.
Recognizing Your Own Skill As a Writer
When you write a story, you often have to ask yourself, “Is this tale good enough to send to editors or agents? Is it ready to publish? Could it be a bestseller?” Oddly enough, you as the author may be a terrible judge of your own work.
When Conventional Wisdom Goes Astray
The writing world is changing quickly… …and that means some things that used to be taboo are now all right. For example, a couple of weeks ago, I was at the Superstars Writing Seminars and found that there are some common misconceptions among new writers. Here are three things you should do: 1. Raise your e-book prices. […]
Plots
A plot doesn’t have to be brilliant for a story to work. It just needs to have some basic components: characters—in conflict and in a setting. The characters must struggle to overcome some obstacle (or obtain some goal) on three or more occasions, and the tale must resolve in such a way that the reader […]
Update on Rachel Ann Nunes Case
#DailyKick—Update on Rachel Ann Nunes Case A few months ago I began to track the case of Rachel Ann Nunes, whose clean romance novel was allegedly plagiarized by a woman named Sam Taylor Mullens, who first copied the novel, did a minor rewrite in which she added pornographic elements, and then packaged it as her […]
Resolutions
David Farland’s Writing Tips — Resolutions I hate the word “resolute.” Whenever I think of it, I think of soldiers circa 1800, marching resolutely into battle, knowing that they’re going to die. Yet every year I make resolutions anyway. Maybe if we had better attitudes about resolutions in the first place, it wouldn’t be so […]
The 5 Parts to a Story
From the inciting incident to try/fail cycles, reversals the climax and denouement, there are certain critical elements to a modern work of literature that must be done well, and in order, to be publishable today.
Writing the Perfect Story, Part 10
What do you think is perfect? For the past few days I’ve been talking about some of the virtues that I personally think need to appear in a story in order for it to feel “perfect” to me. I’m using the word “perfect” in one of its minor contexts, to mean “whole” or “complete.” Yet […]
Writing a Perfect Story, Part 9
I’ve been working on a series of articles on what constitutes a perfect story, and so far I’ve concentrated on some of the qualities that such a story would have. I could go on in that vein for another week, but I’m going to leave the topic for now. Suffice it to say that a […]