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We all know that a character must grow throughout the course of a novel. But how do they grow and how do you Show-Don’t-Tell that growth? It helps to know the beginning and ending points. And often, I like going straight for the end to see where I’m aiming. Let’s say that a person needs [...]
When you write kids’ books, there’s often a parent component. Duh. Kids have parents. So what? Get Rid of Adults One recommendation for dealing with parents is to get rid of them. Send them out of town for work; get rid of at least one parent through death, divorce or neglect; stick them in the [...]
Fully Develop Major Characters As I’m working on this new story and new characters, I have to remind myself to work on the major characters in a different way than the minors. Major character need full development, especially of an inner journey. There needs to be distinctive steps on that journey and each step needs [...]
30 Days to Stronger Scenes: Table of Contents Fiction Notes works to help you write stronger, better stories that will result in a contract! Here are 30 posts about writing stronger scenes. Get regular updates from Fiction Notes Email Address Close var fnames = new Array();var ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]=’EMAIL’;ftypes[0]=’email’;fnames[1]=’FNAME’;ftypes[1]=’text’;fnames[2]=’LNAME’;ftypes[2]=’text’;fnames[3]=’MMERGE3′;ftypes[3]=’url’; try { var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; jqueryLoaded=true; [...]
30 Days to a Stronger Scene Table of Contents Featured Today in Fiction Notes Stores When I teach Novel Revision Retreats, I need a variety of ways to explain this thing called “revision.” Lately, two ideas have helped. Scenes: Have you Hit Bull’s Eye When I evaluate a scene, I’m always asking myself, “Have I [...]
30 Days to a Stronger Scene Table of Contents SCENE 1, introduced the idea of scenes and its basic elements. Here, we want to break it down even more into elements that you can use. Elements of a scene Scenes are made up of Actions, Thoughts, Dialogue and Emotions. In every scene, a character has [...]
Using the Hero’s Journey to Plot At the Michigan SCBWI conference two weeks ago, I was asked to teach about the Hero’s Journey. Taken from Joseph Campbell’s classic work on folklore, the hero’s journey is a classic paradigm for plot, especially for quest stories. The best book for studying the hero’s journey is The Writer’s [...]
Conflict on Every Page Literary Agent, Donald Maass preaches the necessity of “conflict on every page.” I’m revising a scene today and realized I was being lazy.
My WIP is a draft of a novel that I”m going through and expanding. When I read through the draft it felt like a very long treatment, a long synopsis. Scenes weren’t detailed, emotions were nebulous. As I do this, there are questions that are helping me revise each scene.
Develop Your Character Inside and Outside I’m working on a revision of an older story and am finding that my character is flat, lacking emotion. Here’s what should happen: action, reaction, thought and/or emotion. Here’s what is happening: action, reaction. Of course, there’s lots of variation and times when either might be appropriate. But overwhelming, [...]
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