Larger Than Life in Chapter 1

Give Readers a Larger Than Life Protagonist
In my new novel, I’ve written about a dozen different openings, looking for a voice that works. I’m settling in on one, but the first chapter is still unsteady.
One thing I’m looking at today is how to make the main character, the protagonist, larger-than-life.

Improve Your Weak Opening

More on Starting a Novel
Reading a wide variety of mss, I find this to be one of the weakest areas: openings. Striking just the right note is difficult. What do you include just as the curtain opens on your novel?
Typical advice:

Start with something exciting.
Grab the reader by the throat and never let them go
Jump right [...]

Distracted?

Between blogs, email, Facebook, etc. I find myself jumping around too much. I need a way to concentrate on my writing better.
So, this week, I’m trying Q10. It is a text editor that fills the screen with no tool bars, no access to other programs unless you save and exit, and a built-in timer.

Time Line Helps You Plot

Time Line Helps You Plot
I know that my new novel will take place over a 98 hour span of time. So, I’m working with those 98 hours, creating and structuring the time line of the story in these ways.

Describing Characters? Be Subtle

When should your characters notice and comment on something and when should it be just subtly included?
Subtext is when something is going on in the story, but it’s only mentioned in passing, slantwise, or it’s just understood. Often, subtext comes out in dialogue, the unspoken things that the audience understands from knowing the characters and [...]

Orient Your Readers

Sometimes when I read the opening of a manuscript, I’m totally confused.
Trying too hard to grab the reader. These openings start with something startling. OK. Nothing wrong with that, except

Do you get MAD at Editors? I Do

Have Your Pity Party: But Then Get to Work
When you get the letter from an editor about a revision, what do you do?
Frankly, I get mad. How dare that misguided editor

Eavesdropping: Real Dialogue

Notes from the Field
If you’re revising a novel or picture book, one step is to look at the dialogue of your characters and sharpen it. Tom Chiarella, in his book,Writing Dialogue suggests recording dialogue — yes, you get to EavesDrop! — around you for a day. At least for a couple hours. [...]

3 Ways to Show, Don’t Tell

Classic advice to beginning fiction writers: Show, Don’t Tell. I taught several sessions to teachers last week and they all nodded. Great advice. But how do you DO that in practical terms? How do you teach students to Show, Don’t Tell?
Show, Don’t Tell: Why?
In the old days of storytelling, it was fine to just say [...]

Success: What Price Does Your Character Pay?

I’m getting much closer to actually starting my new novel, but I’m still asking myself a crucial question.
What is the cost of success for the main character?
Loss of innocence. If you write a bildungsroman novel, that genre which take a main character from