Your Character’s Secrets and Scars Form Their Values
The key to taking your reader on an emotional journey is encouraging them to invest in your characters. If readers connect to your characters...
Chinua Achebe: “If You Don’t Like Someone’s Story, Write Your Own.”
In a recent post, the Writers Write blog shared writing insights and advice from Nigerian author Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart, Arrow of God)....
Writing a Truer Version of Trauma Survival
In a post on the SFWA blog, Sarah Gailey opens a discussion on writing about trauma, a difficult subject for many writers.
"My favorite description...
Find the Red Herring
During an interview with the Write the Book podcast, Jonah Lehrer suggests you read a detective story and look for the false clues planted...
What Shape Is Your Story?
It's always a good day to share a video of Kurt Vonnegut talking about writing. “Stories have very simple shapes, ones that computers can...
Use Strong Characters to Help Your Reader Jump to Conclusions
In a post on Writer Unboxed, Keith Cronin suggests writers explore and leverage the way people jump to first impressions when they meet someone...
It’s Gotta Be This or That
Strong narrative drive requires you to write about characters in action. The surest way to get your characters moving is to give them choices,...
Crime Fiction Owes More to the Victims
Politicians and social commentators often make hash out of violence in popular culture, gaming, and the arts. They say that depictions of violence desensitize...
La Plus Ça Change…
In their latest podcast, the Writing Excuses hosts discuss why writers of fantasy and science fiction allow their worlds to remain static. In our...
Use Poetry to Unlock a Different Kind of Prose
If you're like this editor, you read in a variety of genres and forms, including plays, essays, and poetry. Unfortunately, many writers wouldn't be...
