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my story doctor

Search Results for: Characters – Page 19

David Farland writing Tip: Is Your Story’s Concept Broken?

Here are a couple of clues:

Is your idea original? As a contest judge, I get to see thousands of stories a year. Many of them are roughly the same story told over and over again. For example, I get stories about “brain transfers” a lot. It might be a Freaky Friday kind of story, where two people switch bodies, or it might be a person getting his memories downloaded into a machine, or it might be a person getting his memories downloaded into a younger version of himself. The question is, do you have a unique take on this idea? Have you considered the idea more deeply than others?

If your idea is not original, if you’ve seen it time and time again, then your story might be weak at its very core, and perhaps you should look for a more-original idea.

David Farland’s Writing Tips—What’s a Book Bomb?

“The right way.” I send out announcements and ask friends to share them. I have about 7000 people who get my newsletter, another 5000 friends on Facebook, 20,000 on Twitter, a few thousand more fans on Facebook, and so on. So I can make a pretty decent splash, and if my friends do the same, we can make huge waves! Books I promote generally hit #1 on Amazon in one or more categories.

“The right time.” I like to recommend books on their release day or shortly before. With many books, if you recommend them three months before the book comes out, readers won’t want to wait that long. It’s an impulse buy.  On the other hand, some people are happy to buy a book early and wait for it, so letting people know a book is coming in a few days usually works well.

David Farland’s Writing Tips: Let the Words Flow

One of the most important skills that any writers learns is to simply sit down and write. For some
people, this is as easy as sitting in a chair and typing. For others who are burdened with stresses,
distractions, or indecision, writing can be more of a challenge.

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.

Wait, before you go…

Be sure to get free access to David Farland’s course on how to brainstorm, pre-write and outline a bestselling novel!

Advanced Story Puzzle Course