Subverting expectations is a really powerful tool you can use as a writer. Whether that’s in the form of a plot twist or just a genre-defying trope, it’s one of the fastest ways to generate variety and interest in your story. Whenever your reader thinks they know where the story is headed… you switch it…
We’ve all read a book featuring the now-famous YA protagonist trope. She’s determined and mature beyond her years. Always an orphan, skilled in some sort of combat, and thrust into positions of power and influence beyond her years. She faces a confusing love triangle, and navigates complicated romantic conflicts as well as political or physical…
Most writers know how themes work: our protagonist rejects a specific truth or message because of their fatal flaw, spends the entire book fighting against accepting it, and is finally forced to confront their flaw just before the climax in a painful but ultimately transforming experience known as their Epiphany. Accepting the truth whole heartedly,…
In the young writing community, there’s a lot of pressure to be a prodigy. Some of that can be good. It’s important to not be limited by your age or the expectations of older individuals around you. There are a lot of writers with a wealth of untapped talent because they believe they are too…
There’s a lot of discussion in the world of storytelling about how to address politics in writing. From reboots that speak to social issues to brand-new stories with blunt political messaging, politicization has been a recurring issue especially in the last few years, and it doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. But the…
Mysteries can be some of the hardest books to write. Between convoluted plots, contrived resolutions, and painfully obvious clues that only lead to one individual, there are a lot of common pitfalls that are insanely easy to fall into as a writer. But that doesn’t mean they are inevitable. This summer I read the mystery-novel-turned-television-drama…
We’ve all come across parts of our story that we, as writers, have complete control of. The screenwriters get to decide when Spider-Man runs out of web fluid. The writers can choose how much the traitor knew before he betrayed his friends to the villains. Whether or not the fans fall in love with Huntrix’s…
There are a lot of unnecessary torture scenes out there. So many of them only exist to show off how dark a characters’ world is and how violent the author is willing to get. Some writers seem to see them almost like a rite of passage — you can take their book seriously because they…
Your story’s written, your characters fleshed out, your first draft done. You’re just about to begin editing — your highlighter hovering above the page, red pen ready by your side to catch any mistakes — when it hits you. One of the characters, or plot lines, or concepts, has been so overused it’s cliched. Maybe…
I’ve talked a lot on the blog about how damaging it can be for a story when the writers have the characters laugh at themselves, their situation, or (worst of all) emotional moments. Part of why I talk about it so much is because of how popular it’s become. It’s hard to find a single…