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I am thinking about doing NaNoWriMo this year, joining with thousands of others in trying to write 50,000 words–a novel–during the month of November. You can’t count any words written before November 1, but I know I can’t do this if I don’t work on a plot before the mad rush officially begins. So far, [...]
I am working on a novel revision for an editor and I expect to turn it in by Monday. But today, as I was reading through one last time to polish everything up–oh, my gosh!–there’s still so much work to do. Last Minute Revisions At this point, it’s not major structural changes or big plot [...]
So What? That’s the question you must get past in your fiction. Why should a reader care? Keep Reader’s Interest: Make Everything Matter More The best way to make a reader care about your story, your novel is to make things matter more, put more at risk, up the stakes. Personal Stakes This can be [...]
In my WIP, I’m looking for mini-conflicts among characters. I want to keep the tension high throughout. Donald Maass, agent and author of Write the Breakout Novel, says, “Tension on every page.” Ongoing Conflicts. These mini-conflicts are the stuff of everyday life: The ongoing battle between teacher/student over chewing gum. The ongoing battle between brother/sister [...]
When, How, and Why to Cut from Scene to Scene 30 Days to a Stronger Scene Table of Contents Importance of Scene Disasters Are you personally a peace maker? Do you try to smooth out conflict among your friends? Are you in trouble when you try to write fiction! Scenes must end in disaster, at [...]
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.
In part 1, I covered plot patterns beginning with character or beginning with a pattern such as the Hero’s Journey. This continues the discussion of 9 ways to plot. 5. Combinations of Plot Paradigms Many descriptions of how to write plot combine a couple of these paradigms: Overlaid with Three Act Structure. Syd Field: Snowflake [...]
I’m back in the trenches here, revising scenes. I’m looking at a single-spaced page of my current WIP. I’ve done the Scene Box Test only to find that there are four boxes on this single page. That means four scenes. Yes, a scene can be accomplished in a single sentence or single paragraph, but I [...]
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