Now that NaNo is over, I’ve noticed there’s been a lot of revision advice floating around the internets. Everyone goes about revising a bit differently, but I think it’s interesting to read about other people’s methods and see what works for you. Here are some revision tips I found especially helpful: -The great Laurie Halse [...]
I have one WIP I’ve been working on for a few years. It’s a complicated story and I keep struggling to figure out how to tell it. It’s gone through so many versions at this point that it’s hard for me to figure out what it needs or what it’s lacking. But I keep coming [...]
If you haven’t noticed, I like to read a lot of books on craft. Thanks to a comment by Shannon Brochu, today I’m going to list some of the ones I’ve found particularly helpful, especially in relation to writing for children and teens. 1. What’s Your Story? by Marion Dane Bauer – This book is [...]
I’ve just started reading Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, a craft book that’s been on my reading list for quite a while. What’s stood out to me the most so far is Maass’s definition of what a breakout novel does, not just what it is. This is what he says: Breakout novels are [...]
I’m always on the lookout for good writing-related posts in the blogosphere, and this week has been filled with them. Here’s a list of a few I found especially helpful. -What do all stories need to keep readers going? Tension. Julia Rocchi talks about adding tension to your writing. -First person narration seems more popular [...]
Last week I wrote about using short and long flashbacks in novel writing. Today I wanted to say a few words about the use of flashbacks in short stories. While many of the usual rules apply, short stories are a slightly different animal. Here are a few general guidelines: 1. Try to avoid long flashbacks. [...]
I don’t know about the rest of you, but for the past few months I’ve been having a hard time focusing. I think it might have something to do with this newfangled thing called the internet and all its fun features such as email, IM, and Twitter. So yesterday I tried out a new time-management [...]
Flashbacks in writing can be wonderful tools; they help us catch a glimpse of a character’s past in order to clue us into his present (and, possibly, his future). But when done incorrectly, flashbacks can pull us out of the story or create narrative confusion. For a straight-forward guide to creating effective short flashbacks, I [...]
There’s a great guest post by Matilda McCloud on Rachelle Gardner’s blog today about avoiding on-the-nose writing. McCloud encourages writers to go beyond the obvious types of characters you’d expect to find in certain genres and to use real life as an inspiration for creating believable characters who aren’t formulaic. She says: Observe and take [...]
As I’ve been struggling with my current WIP, I’ve realized I need to find a better way to think about structure in my manuscripts. Often the stories go haywire and it takes me a long time to rein them back in and figure out how to make them work. I’ve tried outlining but it’s not [...]
