writing
10 Basic Character Needs
They say that effective story characters have problems, because problems mean conflict, and conflict makes for an interesting story. True enough. (See Wednesday’s post for a better explanation.) But what they don’t usually tell you is that all problems come from character needs. Or more precisely, from characters not getting their needs met. Like us, [...]
Craft Beer, Garage Bands, and Self-Published Authors
Craft Beer I’m not a beer drinker. But when I watched a recent Reason.TV video about craft beer, I wanted to become one. I’m not interested in YellowWater Light beer. I’m interested in the niche, microbrew beers, dark, stimulating, challenging, insightful. Craft beer, say the experts in the video, has “taken traditional styles and [run] [...]
Writing Prompts from Classic Stories
Here’s a way to come up with story ideas: retell a classic story, with a twist or two. Or merely use an extant story for inspiration. Finding inspiration in other stories is a long-held tradition in every medium, including film, television, and prose. Walt Disney is the obvious example, having made umpteen animated features out [...]
Who Is the Narrator’s Audience?
Here’s a twist on narrative point-of-view that most authors seem to let slip through the cracks. We all talk about who the narrator is. But who is she talking to? Who is that narrator’s audience? I’m not asking about the writer’s audience, which might be different than the narrator’s audience. The writer is obviously writing [...]
When Great Authors Break the Rules
Can you guess which novel the following beginning comes from? Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense. [...]
Asking the 5 Whys for More Convincing Story Characters
A scenario: Your intimate love of 11 years arrives home one day and says, out of the blue, that he’s quit his job and enrolled in culinary school. Your first reaction is, naturally, “We need to make an appointment to talk to your doctor, Dear. I think your medication is producing some unexpected side-effects.” No, [...]
The Myth of the Thick-Skinned Novelist
Some years ago, when I was a fledgling storyteller still puzzling through the basics of what makes a story work (or not), I frequented a certain writer’s forum, now defunct. One of the writers there made it very clear that when we critiqued his work, we should be positively nasty about it. He didn’t want [...]
Playing with Narrative Mode
There’s one more post I wanted to do in this series on narrative mode, to write and rewrite a short snippet in a number of different narrative modes, just to show how each would turn out. This is not an exhaustive list, because when you combine all the different possible narrative persons with all the [...]
Reading Your Characters’ Minds: Picking the Right Voice
This is the third part in my series on narrative mode. I wrote about narrative voice briefly some months ago, in the context of narrative mode. To review, narrative mode has three components: Person – First (“I”), second (“you”), or third (“he”). Tense – Past, present, or future. Voice – Objective, Limited, or Omniscient (I’ll [...]
Your Story’s Point of View: Picking the Right Person
Picking the right person… No, this is not about dating. This is about narrative person, which I wrote about briefly in the context of narrative mode. I mentioned a few narrative modes and how they were used by their authors. To review, narrative mode has three components: Person – First (“I”), second (“you”), or third [...]