8 Bad Ways to Make a Good First Impression
First impressions are important, but especially so in storytelling. You only get one chance to introduce your reader to your protagonist. Unlike the real...
Advice for Putting Sound on the Page
Yesterday, we posted an article about using the sense of smell in your writing. Today, we have another sense: hearing and sound. Other than...
Accepting the Silliness in the Classic Whodunnit
As movies such as Clue or Murder by Death suggest, the classic whodunnit has an inherent sense of silliness. In a realistic scenario, a...
Story-First Worldbuilding
Worldbuilding can make a writer crazy. Especially in F&SF settings, you need to think through multiple aspects of your story world. You want to...
Great Sentences Need a Sense of Timing
Fiction writers can learn a lot from comedians, even if we don't write comic novels. At heart, great comedians are great storytellers - they...
Gus Moreno on Following the Fear in His Writing
During an interview with Lit Hub's So Many Damn Books podcast, Gus Moreno talks about how he faced his fears while writing his recent...
What’s That Smell?
Of all the sensory experiences writers should convey in their stories, the sense of smell can be the most difficult. Most people share similar...
Six Ways to Open Your Story
The Stage 32 blog shares a video from StudioBinder about the art of the opening scene. The video presents six ways to open a...
Truth is a Powerful Antidote for Our Times
In a post on Writer Unboxed, John Kelley discusses the importance of writing the truth, about our lives and events around us.
"A recent spike...
Making the Most of Your Walk-On Characters
They can't all be stars. Some of your story's characters will warrant only a line or two of dialogue and the barest description. The...
