They say a picture paints a thousand words. But not all writers can paint. And we as writers miss out when we can’t include them in our novels. Art can have a truly profound effect on emotions, actions, and even how we understand complicated concepts — results most writers have to find a substitute for….
Manipulating your reader’s emotions is one of the best ways to make an impact with your story. If any of your words have left someone feeling hopeful, joyful, or excited, you have done well as a writer. But some of the most powerful moments in storytelling are the dark moments. And often writers struggle to…
Recently I read a mystery novel (the first in a series) that ended the first book with a cliffhanger. The mystery hadn’t been solved, the character arcs weren’t concluded, and the biggest questions that the author had been leading up to throughout several hundred pages remained unanswered. I had enjoyed the book up until that…
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was an incredibly inspirational book (my favorite from the entire Hunger Games franchise actually), yet the recently-released movie earned some disappointing ratings. Why is that? Could it be because the screenwriters neglected to capture the protagonist’s internal dialogue again? That the acting was dry? That they changed too many…
Some characters are just plain awesome. They’re memorable, we root for them, and they become impossible to forget. They generate so much interest around the plot, setting, and story just by being who they are. But others seem like cut-outs. They aren’t necessarily cliched, but they speak and act just like the other characters in…
In a previous article, I’ve mentioned how villains should not be shoved under a morally right light. How the writer shouldn’t try to make the bad guy, who everyone is supposed to hate, some misunderstood hero. But what should you do if you want to write a book about the villain’s backstory? When your villain…
I watched a comedy sketch recently that voiced some criticisms about Home Alone — specifically the crazy loops the family jumps through to make leaving their son home alone believable. The skit was fairly funny and the inconsistencies were certainly worth pointing out, and yet… almost no one does. Home Alone is a beloved Christmas…
No one likes spoilers, especially if that spoiler is to a really good mystery series or movie. But what if I told you there was a different kind of spoiler? It’s a non-plot related kind that writers can let into the very text of their stories. These kinds of spoilers can completely ruin a story,…
Everywhere you look, writers are telling you the same thing: read, read, read. You MUST read in YOUR genre, books from authors writing books JUST LIKE YOURS. Don’t just read classics — scope out the competition, what does well in the market, and what elements make a story popular. If you write a book completely…
One day, in the not so distant past, I was talking to Mara about a character of mine. I told her that I wanted my character to enter the story by falling out of a tree. ‘A tree?’ She had asked me. She went on to question why I wanted this to happen. And…I didn’t…