The Essential Ingredient of Hard Choices, by Chuck Wendig

N.B. This is a sanitized version of the essay by Chuck Wendig; please see the original for the more colorful Wendig. From: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2017/11/07/the-essential-ingredient-of-hard-choices I knew a guy named Gil who faced an incredibly difficult decision: his wife and his teenage daughter were both in the hospital at the same time with failing kidneys, the wife from cancer, the daughter from the trauma of a car accident. Grim coincidence, indeed. Both required a kidney… Read More

I Talked to 150 Writers and Here’s the Best Advice They Had, by Joe Fassler

From: lithub.com/i-talked-to-150-writers-and-heres-the-best-advice-they-had I once heard John Irving give a lecture on his process at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, an in-depth account of the way his novels come to be. He kicked it off by writing a single sentence on the chalkboard—the last line of Last Night in Twisted River. All his books begin with the ending, Irving explained, a capstone he works and reworks until it’s ready. From there, he’ll generate a detailed… Read More

NaNoWriMo Pep Talk, by Daniel Jose Older

From: https://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks/daniel-jose-older My favorite advice of all time for writing (and life) comes from a poem by Antonio Machado: “Caminante no hay camino / se hace camino al andar.” It means, “Walker, there is no path / the path is made by walking.” This is a perfectly concise way of saying: Kill your heroes, machete chop the barriers you’ve created in your mind, be brave and ridiculous and absolutely you in your journey… Read More

NaNoWriMo Pep Talk by Roxane Gay

From: https://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks/roxane-gay Before I wrote my first novel, An Untamed State, I wondered if writing a novel was something I could do. The sheer scope of the task overwhelmed me. I started reading various books and visiting writing forums online trying to find advice about writing a novel. I learned about storyboarding methods and special software and how some writers create extensively detailed profiles for each character. I downloaded Scrivener and tried to… Read More

The Key Ingredient for Dramatic Tension–Understanding the Antagonist, by Kristen Lamb

By Author Kristen Lamb, posted in Antagonist on April 23, 2012 From: https://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/tag/role-of-the-antagonist Today I wanted to take some time to talk about the antagonist. Why? Well, not only is the antagonist THE most important character, but he is the most misunderstood as well. […] Whenever I blog about the antagonist, I generally get one of the following: “Well, my character is the antagonist. She is her own worst enemy.” “What if… Read More

Storytelling Strategies: Spotlighting Inner Conflict, by Paul Joseph Gulino

January 25, 2016 From:  http://www.scriptmag.com/features/storytelling-strategies-spotlighting-inner-conflict Do your characters need an arc or inner conflict to make a screenplay work? Spotlight (written by Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy and directed by McCarthy) has been nominated for a slew of awards, including Oscars in Best Picture and Best Writing categories. The obvious reason for the attention is that it is a polished, well-crafted, and engaging film. Very likely, another reason is the subject matter:… Read More

Levels of Conflict, by John Vorhaus

From: http://writerunboxed.com/2013/07/25/levels-of-conflict By John Vorhaus on Jul 25 2013 at WriterUnboxed.com Whenever I have a problem I can’t solve, I immediately try to break it down into smaller, component problems. And I keep breaking problems down until I find one small enough to solve. This is a strategy I use over and over again when trying to get to the heart of the conflict of a story or scene I’m writing. For… Read More

Working with Beta Readers

Looking for inspiration on finding and working with beta readers? Here, read this! https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2014/03/5-things-you-should-know-about-working-with-beta-readers, By Corina Koch MacLeod and Carla Douglas; March 19, 2014 

Find and Work with Beta Readers

Great advice on finding and working with beta readers here: https://janefriedman.com/find-beta-readers; January 18, 2016 by Kristen Kieffer. 

How Not to Open a Short Story, by Philip Athans

From: https://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/how-not-to-open-a-short-story, by Philip Athans November 27, 2012 I generally don’t like this kind of negative approach: lists of what not to do. I prefer to encourage you to do things, not discourage you from doing things, but back to the subject of short stories, I can’t help but point out some very common pitfalls that I’ve seen over and over again for years—decades, actually. So here goes, in no particular order, half a… Read More