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5 Keys To A Satisfying Denouement

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

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Building A Better Battering Ram

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Writing The Profound

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

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Writing a Passive Protagonist

Writing a Passive Protagonist?

Passive protagonists are often frowned upon in the writing world. They don’t influence the plot enough and make it harder for readers to get invested in them, and the story. Learn about passive protagonists and how to make them active. One of the most common pieces of writing advice given

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Is Your Story Idea Worth Writing About?

Is Your Story Idea Worth Writing About?

Every story begins with an idea. The idea may come to you while listening to a song, driving a car, or reading a newspaper. You might be the kind of person who gets a dozen story ideas a day, or maybe they come to you rarely. The question is, how

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how to get a book published

How to Get a Book Published 

Are you looking to publish a book? Let me tell you how to get it done.  Today, there are two paths to publishing: traditional publishing and self- (or independent) publishing.   Traditional publishing generally refers to an established publishing house, employing requisition editors, editors, copyeditors, a design team, marketers/promotion specialists and

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How to Build a Better Outline For Your Novel

You probably wouldn’t sink a million dollars into building a home without a blueprint. You certainly wouldn’t begin creating something as intricate as a cathedral without detailed plans. So why would you sink a year or two into composing a novel without plotting it?

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4 Ways to Avoid a Dead-End Writing Career

A writing career isn’t easy, but these four things will help you avoid a dead-end one. Have you ever seen a talented new writer rise to seeming stardom, only to crash and burn within a couple of years?  I recall being a new writer and studying my contemporaries with a

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Strong Act Structure Creates Stronger Stories

In storytelling structure, people use the term “act” rather broadly and vaguely. Most in the writing community break stories down into three acts: beginning, middle, and end. But if you asked many writers what an act actually is, they would probably give you blank stares.  Despite acts being key structural

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The Value of a Logline

A logline, or log line, is a simple description of a story that is only a sentence long.  It boils the story down to its essence. Unlike the tagline, which is created as a marketing hook, the logline gives the basic premise of the story. Here are three loglines for three

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The Value of a Tagline

A tagline is a single sentence that describes a film or book in a defining way. Choosing a tagline early can help you write your story with the proper tone. When writing a screenplay or a book, one of the first things that a writer may do is create a tagline.

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