Words I Never Want to See in Your Novel. Please. Let’s Talk Again! Quote. 25 Things You Should Know About Character. Previous iterations of the “25 Things” series: 25 Things Every Writer Should Know 25 Things You Should Know About Storytelling And now… Here you’ll find the many things I believe — at this moment! — about characters: 1. Without character, you have nothing. 2. A great character can be the line between narrative life and story death. 3.
Don’t believe that all those other aspects are separate from the character. 4. The audience will do anything to spend time with a great character. 5. It is critical to know what a character wants from the start. 6. It doesn’t matter if we “like” your character, or in the parlance of junior high whether we even “like-like” your character. 7. It is critical to smack the audience in the crotchal region with an undeniable reason to give a fuck. 8.
You must prove this thesis: “This character is worth the audience’s time.” 9. Don’t let the character be a dingleberry stuck to the ass of a toad as he floats downriver on a bumpy log. 10. 11. 12. 13. The law of threes. Tension. Hook Your Readers With Tension By Laura Backes, Write4Kids.com Tension. Without it, life would be—let's face it—boring. So would fiction. Tension works with conflict to raise the emotional level of the text to a boiling point. "Tension" is a loaded word, and can be misleading. Tension is what hooks readers of any age and keeps them turning the pages. . * The ticking clock. . * Dialogue. . * Pacing. . * Sentence structure. Each story requires a different kind of tension. Laura Backes is the author of Best Books for Kids Who (Think They) Hate to Read from Prima/Random House.
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Creating Villains People Love to Hate. By Lee Masterson Every story has to have a bad guy. There wouldn't be much conflict for your protagonist to overcome if there was no antagonist to stir the pot. Yours might be the evil villain who opposes everything your hero (or heroine) does. He might be the treacherous double-agent from the past, or the psychotic evil scientist, or maybe just the "other woman" fighting for your hero's attention.
Whoever your villain is, making sure he is believable is far more difficult than simply creating a character who does bad things to hold up your protagonist's progress. You job here is to make your villains credible, logical, and believable, but not likeable. You want the reader to understand what they're doing that is such a negative thing for your hero. But it's more involved than just explaining their adverse actions. Basically, you need your villains to be real, three-dimensional people. Your villain is no different. How Not to Create a Villain, by Anne Marble. Fundamentals of Fiction: Being Realistic. By Marg Gilks "I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and accomplishing little; they want to have been writers, garnering the rewards of having completed a best-seller.
They aspire to the rewards of writing but not to the travail. " -- James A. Michener I sent the first story I ever wrote for paid publication to Asimov's Science Fiction. For those outside the speculative fiction genre, Asimov's is one of the Big Four -- the "pro" magazines with the largest readership, the biggest-name authors, the best pay rates. The ones with the glossy color covers you see on all the newsstands. I had a lot to learn. My story was rejected, of course. Be Humble I know this is a hard concept for a beginning fiction writer to grasp, because I was once a beginning fiction writer, and I thought my stories were just as good as the ones I read in the pro magazines, too.
Fundamentals of Fiction: Avoid Those Beginners' Blunders. By Marg Gilks "Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. " -- Gene Fowler You've written a great story, sent it out again and again, but it keeps being rejected. Why? What are some of the writing blunders you may be committing that set red "amateur" flags waving for agents and publishers -- and invariably earn your story a rejection slip? They're Only Empty Words Blonde bombshell, guns blazing, go the extra mile, passed with flying colors, under cover of darkness. Cliches like these pepper our everyday speech, but in a story, they're a red flag.
Like cliches, empty modifiers like adjectives and adverbs are the sign of weak writing, produced by a writer without the imagination or the skill needed to create evocative descriptions that add depth to the story. Used in place of more vivid language, adverbs and adjectives are just as commonplace as cliches. Tell Me No More! Don't. Head-hopping Sounds pretty good, huh. The 10 Types of Writers Block (and How to Overcome Them) Archetypal characters in the Hero’s Journey » Jordan McCollum. A quick overview of the Hero’s Journey » Jordan McCollum. Planning out a novel? Be sure to join my newsletter for a FREE plotting/revision roadmap, and check out the full series on plotting novels in a free PDF! Over the last two weeks, we’ve looked at two plotting methods. One helped us parse our story into parts, the other helped us grow it from an idea.
But a weakness of both is that neither really tells us what kind of events we need in a story—especially in the sagging middle. The Hero’s Journey is based on the universal archetype work of Carl Jung, as applied by Joseph Campbell. Campbell studied myths, legends and tales from around the world, and observed that most of the stories followed a similar pattern.
However, it was Christopher Vogler that applied the Hero’s Journey to writing (and film) technique and story structure in The Writer’s Journey. I first learned about the hero’s journey in high school. Ahem. The Hero’s Journey The story begins in The Ordinary World. Then comes the Call to Adventure. Normally, the hero isn’t interested. Find Synonyms and Antonyms of Words at Thesaurus.com. A story in three acts » Jordan McCollum. The most basic story structure is the story in three acts. The three act structure has been used since . . . well, forever, but in recent history, the biggest proponent of this structure is Syd Field in his book Screenplay (although it’s been applied to all kinds of stories, not just movies). So what are the structures in the three-act story? Act I is the “setup,” where we lay our scene (and our characters).
This is where we establish the story world, our characters and their relationships. That isn’t to say there’s no conflict here, nor that there’s nothing happening. Act I is about 25% of the story, and ends in the first turning point. Act II is the “confrontation” or the “rising action.” In the second act, which lasts for about half of the book, the hero(ine) learns and acquires new skills through these confrontations, arming themselves for the big confrontation at the end of this act/the beginning of Act III: the climax or second turning point.
Act III is the “resolution.” A Simple Novel Outline - 9 questions for 25 chapters & H.E. Roulo. Just as every tree is different but still recognizably a tree, every story is different but contains elements that make it a story. By defining those before you begin you clarify the scope of your work, identify your themes, and create the story you meant to write. At Norwescon 2011 I sat in on a session called Outline Your Novel in 90-minutes led by Mark Teppo. I’ll give you the brief, readable, synthesized version. Answer 9 questions and create 25 chapter titles and you’re there. Here are the 9 questions to create a novel: 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.) 9.) Now, with those 9 questions answered to your satisfaction, try to fill in a 25 chapter, 75,000 word outline. Chapters 7-18 are the middle of your book. Chapters 19-25 depict the heroic act to victory. Wasn’t that easy? Okay, sure, the work isn’t done yet.
Using the idea that there are 25 chapters, I outlined my current work in progress. I hope that was helpful. Tell me what works for you. Related 6 Steps to Masterful Writing Critiques.