Help for Writers
8 Tips on Creating Vivid, Memorable Characters
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...
Dig Deeper to Reveal Character
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...
Getting to Know Your 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...
Beware Monotonous Interior Monologue
A monologue is a long speech by one person. It can be dramatic, or it can bore the pants off listeners (or readers, if it’s a character holding forth). The content has to be pretty dramatic for a monologue to work well. Interior monologue is a fancy name...
How to Filter Description Through Your Characters
How do you describe a scene without slowing down the pace of your novel? What do you include? What do you leave out? Here's a neat trick: use your own experiences as a guide. When we encounter a new setting or new experience, all our senses are on the alert....
Does Your Fight Scene Pack a Punch?
Long ago, movie directors mastered the technique of creating a convincing fight scene. Bodies crash to the floor.. chairs are upended... viewers are treated to closeups of terrified or furious faces... and the punches thrown are enough to make us wince and close our...
How to Avoid Viewpoint Slips
Sit back, and imagine what it feels like to be you. Now that shouldn't be too hard - you've lived in your own skin for a long time. Do you feel happy or sad? Do you feel on edge or relaxed? Do you feel tired or energetic? Do you feel angry or calm? Now think about...
Whose Story Is It?
Whenever you sit down to plot a story (or even to think about a story) one of the first things you have to ask yourself is this: "Whose story IS it?" It seems like a simple question - but your story can succeed or fail depending on how you handle this. Told from the...
Being Sneaky – Introducing Villains and Clues
If there's one thing that really annoys readers of mysteries, it's being able to guess who the villain is by page 30. This happens for a variety of reasons, including: the author being so determined to 'play fair' that she makes it too obvious who the villain is the...
Before You Start to Plot
Here's a quick question for you: what's easiest to write - a 'woman in jeopardy' story or a police procedural? If you are (or have been) a police officer, then 'police procedural' might be the answer for you. If you know nothing about police procedure, it would...
Just Too Convenient
Some time ago I happened to critique several scenes in one week for a writer. In two of them, she'd made life much too easy for her characters. In the first scene, complete strangers offered the children shelter and food. In the second, one of them needed to hide......
5 Ideas for Plot Twists
I admit that this might start to sound a bit like the developments in your favorite (or most-hated) soap opera - but remember: readers LOVE to be surprised! Your job is to tread the fine line between giving them a plot twist that they didn't see coming, and having...