Writing the RIGHT Details
Writing the right details will help you craft more immersive, meaningful, and layered stories. If you’ve been writing very long, you’ll know the importance of mentioning details in your writing. Appealing to the senses and attention to detail is what will ground your reader and bring your story to life. Details often make it so […]
How to Write a Story: A Checklist for Writing Your Story
Use this checklist for writing your story, and you will write even stronger stories. David Farland was a best-selling author and contest judge for the world’s largest short story competition. When I used to write for competitions, I would make lists of ways that judges might look at my work in order to grade it. […]
Why Editors Reject Your Story?
As many of you know, I judge stories for the Writers of the Future contest. Today I want to talk about those stories that get an Honorable Mention. On my computer, I have a story up. I’ve read the first two pages, and although I’m a little soft on the opening paragraph, the rest of […]
5 Keys to a Satisfying Denouement
Often as writers, we put a lot of our focus on the starting, climax, and middle of a story, and the denouement or falling action may be somewhat of an afterthought. If your experience was like mine, you were kind of taught that the denouement should just be a quick wrap-up that can end the […]
Building a Better Battering Ram
Last night, a new writer who is preparing his first novel asked, “When do I begin approaching agents?” I get that question at least once a week, and my answer is always the same: “When your novel is done. And by that I mean, well done!” I think that it is human nature to be […]
How to Use Dialog Tags Terribly
Dialog tags help the reader know who is speaking the dialog. Recently, I shared how you could write bad dialog in your stories. The truth is, though, if you really want to write wretched dialog, you should consider working on your dialog tags. Here are a few options that you might not have considered. I […]
The Influence Character: One of the Most Important Roles
The Influence Character is one of the most important roles in your character cast. It is third only to the protagonist and antagonist. The term “Influence Character” originates from Dramatica Theory, and has since been used and adopted (and sometimes adapted) by others in the writing community. This is a role that has power based […]
How to Write Bad Dialog
Writing bad dialog is almost an art form unto itself. Recently I read a couple of stories where it felt as if the author was struggling to come up with bad dialog. So I thought I should give a few tips on how to do it properly. The easiest way to write wretched dialog is […]
Pacing a Story: What’s the Rush?
Pacing a story appropriately will keep readers engaged. Unfortunately, many mistakenly think this means the story needs to be rushed. I see a lot of trends in today’s literature. Perhaps the biggest one is that every writer seems to be in a rush. Many new writers try to keep the pacing blazing hot. They’ve heard […]
Writing the Profound
For some authors, it is enough to try to make big bucks, but most of us would like to deliver a powerful message at times, too—something that carries extra meaning in our lives, something profound. Doctors studying the neuro-science of storytelling go so far as to suggest that a story doesn’t really work unless it […]