Having something as intrinsic as story conflict broken down into easy to follow, realistic, and straightforward guidelines is every writer’s wish. Conflict is usually a grandiose idea that doesn’t always manifest to its fullest potential in a first draft. We… Read More ›
“Her eyes darted left and right.” “His fingertips fell to the table.” “Their arms dropped.” You might not see it (heaven knows I miss it in my own work more than I care to admit) but the body parts in… Read More ›
Most writers will integrate some level of foreshadowing into their first draft on instinct. Where it really makes its impact though, is in the 2nd draft when you have time to take a good look at where you want to… Read More ›
When it comes to a first draft many writers prefer to just ‘get it out’ – like verbal diarrhea (euww). But it’s often easier to fine-tune and fix things in a second draft than trying to get every sentence and… Read More ›
He said, she screamed, they laughed, we cried, everyone gasped… These are some of the more useful dialogue tags available. The staple, of course, will always be: he/she said. Generally speaking (pun intended), new and inexperienced writers tend to overdo… Read More ›
Where Do I Start? I have been approached by a few NaNoWriMo winners about what to do now that they have this mass of writing (1st draft nearly finished). Many have some of the manuscript handwritten and the rest typed… Read More ›
