The Conflict Box

Dec 22, 2024 | Blog, Method, WIP, Writing

Continuing on with the theme of conflict (because I’ve been having so much trouble resolving the conflict in the book I’m writing and because the book I’m editing doesn’t have nearly enough), I was recently reminded of the conflict box....

World Conflict (in fiction)

Dec 15, 2024 | Blog, Writing, Writing Craft

How interesting is your world? Is it interesting enough that you would want to live there? Too interesting that it would terrify you to do so? I recently heard about someone who created a world so dull that she didn’t even want to create her story anymore (it was a...

Go Ahead, Be Mean

Apr 2, 2023 | Blog, Writing, Writing Craft

You have worked very hard to make your main characters likeable… lovable, even. You’ve developed them into complete human beings in your mind and, hopefully, in your novel as well. But then… you’ve got to be mean to them! You’ve got to destroy their wonderful (or even...

What your characters need most

May 1, 2022 | Blog, WIP, Writing, Writing Craft

As you know, if you’ve been following this blog, I’ve been going through some personal unpleasantness recently. I was living in Kyiv just before the war started and have been moving around in uncertainty since. My apartment in Kyiv is in a spot that easily could be...

Piling it on

Jul 18, 2021 | Blog, Method, Writing, Writing Craft

When I plot out a story I am careful not to overwhelm my reader with too many things going on at once. Especially when it comes to bad things happening. Piling one bad thing onto another onto another could not only get to be too much for the reader, but at some point...