Context is Key: The Three ‘Must-Have’ Elements in Every Scene
Hey there! Savannah here. Did you know that a lack of context is one of the most common reasons readers disengage from a story? It makes sense because people read to be totally immersed in another time and place–to be in the skin of another person, experiencing the story as they do. So, when you […]
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. […]
A Guide to Critiquing a Story
How should we critique someone’s writing? Frequently authors ask if I have a form that I use to help me critique a story. Given the large number of things that I look at in a story, any form that I might use would simply be too long to be workable. Yet it makes sense to […]
How to Put Your Story Into Motion
When describing anything—a setting, a character, or even a conflict—consider ways that you might bring that thing to life by describing both its past and its future.
Bringing Your Scene to Life through Action
Have you ever read a story that starts with a character sitting in a still forest, just thinking? They’re almost always dull. I’ve read, and rejected, thousands of them for publication. Why? Because the whole darned story is just sitting there, doing nothing, too. So we’re trained as writers to avoid such scenes, to start […]
