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PLOT: You MUST be Brutal
The biggest problem I have in planning a plot–still, after all these years–is that I am too nice to my characters. I can’t imagine the horrible things that need to happen, without a big struggle. Listen up: What is the worst thing that could happen to your character? It MUST happen at the climax of…
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SCENE 1: What has the Most Potential for Improving Your Writing?
30 Days to a Stronger Scene What has the most potential for improving your writing? Learning to write a strong scene; then making sure every scene in your story is strong. Because it’s so important, we’ll spend the next 30 days breaking down scenes and trying to write the strongest possible. 30 Days to a…
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Literary Conversations: What Can You Add?
Exploring Issues through Story This weekend, I read Kenneth Oppel’s new book, Half Brother. I’ve enjoyed his award-winning Silverwing trilogy about bats, and loved his AIRBORN, a Printz Honor book. Because his career has been grounded in fantasy, it was interesting to see this foray into historical fiction. Half Brother is about a family who…
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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…