One Stop for Writers Checklists and Tip Sheets – by Angela Ackerman… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

I know I’ve mentioned these before, but this link is nirvana. There are so many lists there that can help you, no subscription required. One Stop for Writers

One Stop for Writers Checklists and Tip Sheets – by Angela Ackerman… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Advertisement

The Recipe for Writing a Great Scene – by Janice Hardy… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

on Fiction University: A great scene is a lot like a great meal. It whets an appetite for more, it fills up the senses, and it satisfies the hunger.   A lot of things can happen in a scene. Plot things, character things, backstory things. We even describe them as “this is the scene where […]

The Recipe for Writing a Great Scene – by Janice Hardy… — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

How to Create Dynamic Fictional Characters

A Writer's Path

by David Gittlin

Most serious writers want to connect with an audience; preferably a big one.  You have something to say.  You have a story to tell.  You want people to read it.  One of the best ways to make people want to read your work is to create memorable and relatable central characters.  Whether you are writing a short story, screenplay, or a novel, you want your readers to identify with and live the story through your main characters.  To do this, you have to create three dimensional characters that live and breathe in your reader’s imagination.  I’d like to share with you a method I learned for from professional, published writers.

View original post 648 more words

Character Descriptions: Avoiding the Boring Stuff – by Angela Ackerman…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Jami Gold:

We all know characters are the beating heart of a story. Fashioned from imagination clay and given life by an author, these fictional people have yearnings, dreams, and fears just like us. They also have a past—one filled with challenges, strife, and hope—and this collection of experiences shape them into the person readers meet on the doorstep of chapter one.

Digging deep to explore a character’s hidden truths is hard and necessary work. I spend a lot of time coaching writers to drill down into the essence of who their character is so that when they write their behavior, every action and choice is driven by their motivation and authentic to them.

But there’s another aspect of character description that is easy to forget about or gloss over: their physical appearance.

Continue Reading HERE

View original post

Writers Need to Rethink Rewrites

No Wasted Ink Writers Links — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

Originally posted on No Wasted Ink: Welcome back to writer links day here on No Wasted Ink. Each week, I select ten articles from my general reading on the internet to share with you here on the blog. I hope you like this week’s choice. Enjoy. The Fantastical Food of Fantasy Fiction Biting the Bullet…

via No Wasted Ink Writers Links — Chris The Story Reading Ape’s Blog

3 Needs to Decide How Much Description to Use

The Author Chronicles

How much description and other information do we need to put into any given scene? Too much and it becomes a sleep-inducing info dump. Too little and the reader is lost and confused. So how do we find that perfect balance? How do we know what to put in when?

In a discussion at the Liars Club’s Willow Grove Coffeehouse yesterday, we discussed this very topic. The answer lies in three Needs that converge at the point of perfect balance.

• Needs of the genre
• Needs of the reader
• Needs of the Point of View (POV) character

Needs of the Genre

Every genre comes with content expectations. While a Tom Clancy espionage-thriller is expected to be heavy on technical details, a romance is not. And while romance carries an expectation of a happily ever after, many horror stories do not. Knowing what your genre expects can help guide you as to…

View original post 337 more words

Series Bible: What To Include And Why Writers Should Have One

K.M. Allan

Not content with writing just one book, some writers tackle a series.

I did this for the first manuscript I decided to write seriously (either bravely or stupidly, I still haven’t decided), and one thing I learned was that it pays to have a series bible.

A series bible is a document made up of all the notes, secrets, and information relating to your series. The same principles can be applied to standalone books, but where a series bible really shines is keeping everything straight amongst multiple books. This is the reason why all writers should have one.

What To Include In Your Series Bible

Characters

List everything you can about your characters. What they look like, who they’re related to, who they’re friends with. Note down their goals, dreams, where they go to school, if they have a job, what happened in their past. It doesn’t have to be…

View original post 1,020 more words

How to Revise your Manuscript: First Draft to Final Draft – by Lisa Poisso…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

Writing a novel is such a minuscule part of writing a novel. People who’ve never written anything longer than a school paper have a hard time imagining that pouring all those words onto the page isn’t the major part of the battle.

Experienced authors know better.

Writing the manuscript is just a fraction of the process of creating a novel.

The writing process hogs the spotlight, but learning how to revise your manuscript will allow the story inside to bloom.

Continue reading HERE

View original post

Key Writing Lessons from a Writing Event

Uninspired Writers

Yesterday, I attended an incredible writing event hosted by Jericho Writers. It was a fantastic day, with talks from amazing writers, authors and agents. I just need to state that I would 100% attend one of their events again, and recommend them to other writers hoping to gain huge insight into writing, getting an agent and publishing.

So, I thought I’d share with you all some of the writing lessons I took away from the day. Next week I’ll share some of the publishing lessons too, but I think it’ll be too much if I try and fit everything into one blog post, so here we go!

1. Speech is one of the most powerful character traits
The first talk of the day was about ‘advanced characterisation’ and spoke about the various ways we can portray our characters to ensure they have depth. ‘Speech’ was discussed for a while…

View original post 732 more words