by Marg McAlister | Characters, Viewpoint
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 for ‘thinking...
by Marg McAlister | 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....
by Marg McAlister | Characters, Writing Fiction
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...
by Marg McAlister | Characters, Viewpoint, Writing Fiction
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?...
by Marg McAlister | Plotting, Characters, Viewpoint
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...
by Marg McAlister | Mystery and Crime, Plotting
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...
by Marg McAlister | Plotting, Mystery and Crime, Writing Fiction
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...
by Marg McAlister | Mystery and Crime, Plotting
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...
