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- Extended time generator
- Try a little name dropping
- Does being well-read help you write?
- Talking yourself into writing
- Chemistry lessons
- Mixing past and present can get tense
- Breathing life into your words
- Playing the writing game
- Idea generator
- Vanilla, Chocolate, or Bananas Foster
- In praise of the passive hero
- Not exactly human
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Category Archives: Story structure
Does being well-read help you write?
Despite the flood of self-published books, there are still agents searching the field of writers attempting to discover the next best-selling author. I read a long list of short blurbs written by these agents describing what they required of those … Continue reading
Posted in Educational trends, Literary devices, Story structure, Trends in books
Tagged the idiot, well-read
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Playing the writing game
The debate continues between those who have a flash of inspiration that propels them to write and keep writing and those who think about their ideas and outline before they start. For those who prefer the less planned routine, the … Continue reading
Nonlinear, when does it work?
At one point when watching a Benedict Cumberbatch movie, my friend commented that this actor must have the requirement that all of his movies or series be nonlinear. At one moment Cumberbatch would be studiously studying a problem in the … Continue reading
The dance of suspense
Suspenseful writing is a dance between plausibility (what makes sense to readers), and the unexpected. Not just any unexpected events, such as inheriting a million dollars, but ominous ones, such as discovering that the previous person who inherited that same … Continue reading
Posted in Story structure, Writer's resource, writing action
Tagged premonition, Supernatural, suspense
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Showing too much
Carefully polishing my piece for a writing critique, I attempted to picture every detail of a tense scene. Two indigenous boys scavenged through a village ravaged by mudslides, only to encounter unscrupulous men searching for labors to conscript. The boys … Continue reading
Posted in Story structure, Writer's resource
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Don’t ignore response to a tragedy
Anyone who sees or hears a tragedy cannot remain untouched by it. They can attempt to stifle or ignore it, but there will be subtle signs. When that tragedy strikes a person directly, the signs will be even greater, and … Continue reading
Posted in Story structure, Writer's resource
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Please make me think
Science fiction in films was once an outlet to comment on society, often with a critical view, such as Fahrenheit 451 and Silent Running. As recently as ten years ago I was intrigued by the British Science Fiction film, Moon, … Continue reading
Posted in Story structure, Writer's resource
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Roman replicas
One type of government that keeps appearing in modern science fiction is a replica of the Roman Empire. From the gladiator-like entertainment by the Hunger Games series to the takeover of the Galactic Republic senate by Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Story structure, Writer's resource
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What is the opposite of steam punk?
World building can be a challenge. Advice from someone well-versed in geology, history, or sociology will help when designing world differing from the one we inhabit. My desire was to create an alternate world in which civilization was advanced as … Continue reading
Posted in Literary devices, Story structure, Writer's resource, writing trends
Tagged steam punk, world building
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Kick starting a story
Many writers believe that most readers will only read a novel that grabs their attention from the first page. A dramatic episode must unfold in the first paragraph. I witnessed a workshop in which writers were coached to do just … Continue reading
