Advice for Eliminating the Static from Your Story Signal
Donald Maass suggests an interesting definition for static hiss: any information that detracts from the main signal. In a post for Writer Unboxed, Maass...
Emotions: Dealing with the Committee in Your Character’s Head
In a post on Writers in the Storm, Lisa Wilson-Hall offers her perspective on writing your character's emotions. Interesting, Wilson-Hall says emotions serve three...
How to Keep Writing, Even When You’re Not
Most writers set some sort of productivity goals for themselves. It's important to keep yourself motivated and on-track to complete your projects. You don't...
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...
