Understanding the Heart of Negative Character Arcs
Negative characters arcs are about more than a character being “bad.” Learn what’s at the heart of negative arcs, and answer some questions to help
September C. Fawkes
David Farland: Story Doctor Writing Tips
Recent Writing Tips
How Books Are Chosen for Publication
Discover the intricate process of how books are chosen for publication, exploring the roles of agents, editors, and marketing departments. Learn what it takes for a new author to break through in the competitive publishing industry.
David Farland
David Farland’s Writing Tips – Twelve Exercises for Developing Characters
There are a lot of exercises that can help you create characters. Most of them simply force you to focus
on your character and stretch your imagination in some way by answering questions about the
characters. These questions might touch upon the outer looks of the character, the character’s history,
the character family and contacts, or the character’s inner hopes and fears. But creating characters for
fantasy and science fiction worlds offers extra challenges. Here are a few exercises that I’ve found
helpful:
David Farland
What Happens When Characters Lose Control of Their Emotions?
When characters become volatile, it doesn’t matter if they have a good reason or not, only the mistakes and missteps that often follow.
Special Guest
How to Write a Novel: A 16-Step Guide
How to write a novel, from beginning to end in 16 steps. Brainstorm, develop a great character, create an antagonist, and more.
September C. Fawkes
Steadfast Stories: Characters without Change Arcs
In a positive steadfast arc, the character holds true to who he was in the beginning. Often when we think of characters arcs, we think
September C. Fawkes
Writing a Christmas Cozy Mystery
For at least five or six years, I’ve been wanting to write a Christmas cozy mystery. I thought it would be fun to explore my recurring characters’ Christmas traditions and how the town celebrated.
David Farland
Heart-Centered Book Marketing
Instead of thinking I had to contact hundreds of book bloggers to see if they’d like to review my book, I started with one blogger a week. By the end of 3 months, my book had appeared on about 20 blogs and received 10 reviews.
David Farland
Eliminating On The Nose Dialoge
Crafting Authentic Dialogue: A Guide to Eliminating On-The-Nose Conversations Today’s writing tip comes from Alex Bloom, the founder of Script Reader Pro, a screenplay consultancy and blog
David Farland
How Burnout Made me a Better Author
Burnout. Few words spark such dread among writers. Avoiding it, surviving it, and recovering from it are each the focus of many articles, blogs, podcasts, books, and conference classes. Still, most of us have or will find ourselves grappling with it. This struggle resembles a hiker who has fallen off an unforeseen cliff and now clings to the sheer rockface with desperate, failing fingers, unable to pull themselves up.
David Farland
How To Build A Flesh And Blood Character
If you’re like me, when you have an idea for a character you go into serious planning mode. You might fill a notebook, use character questionnaires, worksheets, and other tools to uncover their inner layers. Or if you’re a pantser, you may decide to start writing a discovery draft to find out who they are and what the story is about as you go. Plan or pants, we all must end up with the same thing: a character who is rounded, credible, and unique.
David Farland
How To Fix Flat, Two-Dimensional Characters
When people say that a character is “flat” or “two-dimensional,” they’re typically just saying that the character isn’t interesting. And uninteresting characters are a plague on a story. Let’s look at a few techniques to make characters interesting, round, and three-dimensional.
David Farland
How to Write a Bestselling Novel in Three Easy Steps
As an author, you may not want to admit, but you really care about selling books. If you’re writing to get rich, you’ve got to sell millions of copies. If you’re more of a revolutionary and want to change the world, it would sure be a lot easier of a billion people adopted your ideas. Or if you want to be admired by others, you do want millions of fans.
David Farland
Want Strong Dialogue? Don’t Forget The Subtext
Mastering dialogue subtext reveals the hidden depths of character interaction. By Becca Puglisi Realistic, evocative dialogue is an important part of any successful story.
Special Guest
Pinch Points That Reveal The Opposition In Your Fiction
You may have heard of pinch points. Or not. I’d guess that most fiction writers have no clue what they are or why they’re so
David Farland
