Mar 10
Why do some stories work better in one point of view than another? Why do you choose first over third, or vice-versa? It can be difficult sometimes to know in which point of view you should write a story. Sometimes you’ve just got to try it out – write the first few chapters in one …
Dec 02
Point of view has always fascinated me. I’ve read and reread Alicia Rasley’s The Power of Point of View as well as Orson Scott Card’s Characters & Point of View, and still every time I open either book I learn something new. The other day I was skimming through my blog feeds and came across …
Nov 11
It’s editing time again, woohoo! I’m both teaching the subject in my Craft of Writing class this week, and spent all of yesterday listening to the wonderful Margie Lawson teach her EDITS system and Empowering Your Writing. Which means that, yes, I’ve got a ton of work to do on my WIP. The very first …
Oct 28
It’s pretty strange to have an article on how to write a synopsis when I’ve got a hurricane bearing down on me, but I promised to post this last week, and, hey, the storm’s not supposed to arrive until tonight anyway. So here it is, my “How to write a synopsis article”. Enjoy! A synopsis …
Oct 21
I put out a call this week to my former (and present) students on my Chapter One Facebook page for suggestions for what I should write about this week. Vivi Dumas asked that I go over how to write a synopsis. I thought that was a really interesting idea, not just because writing a synopsis can be …
Oct 14
It’s the question that is asked the most of any author. Where did you come up with your idea for your book, your story? I teach beginning writers who are terrified of sharing their ideas for fear that someone else will steal them. I have to assure them again and again, that I’m not going …
Sep 30
I’m beginning to think about this question. Odd for someone who’s been writing for (cough, cough, cough) years and has been published since 2004! But as I’m beginning to pull my marketing weight for the new anthology in which I’ve got a story, I’m thinking about this question. The anthology, Tales From The Mist, is …
Sep 23
I can always count on my students to enable me to teach my lessons in class. This past week it was a very sweet woman who has a great love for Hrithik Roshan, the Bollywood movie star. I told her she had to throw acid in his face. She screamed. Literally. Every semester when I …
Sep 15
There are at least five different story structure forms which you can use to format your novel: the basic Freytag’s Pyramid, a three act structure, a four act structure, a “W” structure (similar, but not the same as the four act structure, at least not as defined by Theresa Stevens and Alicia Rasley on one …
Aug 26
It’s such a great concept isn’t it? Well, if you were writing a horror story, that is. Which I was trying to do just a few short weeks ago. I failed miserably in the horror/scary department. I turned out a very nice story, though. Doesn’t that just suck, I tried to write something scary and …
