by Marg McAlister | Characters, Viewpoint
One thing that gives away an inexperienced writer is overuse of tags such as ‘she noticed’ or ‘he saw’. Example 1: “Taking a second look, SHE NOTICED that his face was growing redder.” Example 2: “TIM SAW that the car had...
by Marg McAlister | Characters
When you’re looking out at the world through the eyes of the scene’s viewpoint character, how do you show the reader what your character is like? You’ll be violating viewpoint if you suddenly step out of the character’s mind and look at her...
by Marg McAlister | Characters, Writing Fiction
We all like to make our characters as three-dimensional as possible, so that the reader sees them as real people. We strive to show what they look like, how they feel, and how they react. We try to get right into their skin and use a variety of strategies to let the...
by Marg McAlister | General
For many years, I’ve been a tutor for students undertaking courses in writing romance, crime or children’s stories. In that time, I’ve marked thousands of assignments. I’ve seen hundreds of plots, thousands of scenes, millions of words. And if...
by Marg McAlister | Characters, Plotting, Writing Fiction
How do you actually begin a novel – by working out the plot, or starting with a character? And which is best? The answer is probably pretty much what you expected: no one method is “best”. In fact, many authors have begun their first novel by working...
by Marg McAlister | Characters, Writing Fiction
These 8 tips on using characters in your stories will help you make sure that readers are involved with your story people right from the start. Tip 1: Make sure that the reader knows as early as possible who the viewpoint character is in any scene. Do this by tapping...
by Marg McAlister | Characters
He ran up the steps and knocked on the door. After a few moments, it was opened by a woman with dark curly hair and a strained expression. What you’ve just read are two simple sentences showing a common situation. So common that the author very probably has...
by Marg McAlister | Characters
Interesting characters that readers care about are the most important ‘ingredients’ in your novel. That might sound like a fairly sweeping statement, but think about it. You can have a wonderful plot with twists and turns and a humdinger of a surprise...
