Blog

The Hero's Journey as Scaffolding

The hero's journey is scaffolding you build with, then take down The hero's journey is a circle with seventeen stations on it. Ordinary world at the top, then the call, the refusal, the mentor, the threshold, all the way around. You've seen the diagram. I've leaned on that circle…

The New Character Template

The Character Template: Build a Character You Can Come Back To Every writer has a graveyard of half-finished character sheets. Mine used to live in Word documents named things like char_notes_FINAL_v3.docx. The template was fine. The problem was everything around it: no consisten…

Introducing the Studio

Craft Tools Accessible from Anywhere Most of the tools we lean on as writers live somewhere else. The character sheet is a Word doc in a folder we forget the name of. The worldbuilding notes are scattered across three apps. The "read it out loud and catch the lumps" pass happens …

The Writing Resources Page

I keep my working craft notes on one page of this site. It's called Writing Resources, and reaching it costs nothing but a free account. I mean the actual notes. The template I fill in before I name a character. The ten-part slog I went through to build a believable world for my …

Filter Words

I’ve been re-editing my work and realize my prevalence for filter language making my narrative stodgy. Here’s how I’ve been cleaning up my writing: WHAT ARE FILTER WORDS? Filter words are verbs or phrases that insert the narrator between the reader and the character’s direct expe…

Oxford Comma vs. No Oxford Comma: What Writers Should Know

Which is the best for comma usage in fiction? To be, or not to be?  As I’ve been revising and editing Another Past: Book One, I’ve run into an inconsistency in my editing tools. In the review tools built into Ulysses, where my definitive content lives, Oxford commas are used. Thi…

Overcoming Writing Blocks: Tips to Reignite Your Muse

I’ve hit a little block on my two works-in-progress. Neither is fully blocked, in so far that I know where I want the story to go, but both are feeling more like work to write at the moment. Since the first 25k words in each came almost effortlessly, it gives a pause when it star…

Navigating Plot Challenges: Writing into a Corner

I've been editing and polishing my latest story, as discussed last month. I know I'm making the story better and stronger, but it is not without its challenges. One issue I faced is the skipping of progress in certain character/conflict arcs. My method of tracing these arcs expos…

Essential Editing Tips for Novelists: Filling Plot Holes

Last week I discussed ongoing editing of my current work in progress. The difference between creating and editing has been a motivational struggle, but I feel I have gotten into a rhythm over the past week. Here are a few accomplishments and observations since that last post. Plo…

Identifying Plot Gaps in Your Novel

I've been continuing with my review of my draft novel. I fully believed I had completed it from a plot perspective. Much to my chagrin, a review for editing has shown a big gap in the story. Here's what happened. As part of the review I have begun, I created a tally of the major …

Navigating Writing Challenges: Tips for Revising Your Manuscript

I've been off of writing for a couple of weeks due to company visiting around the holidays. One reason I pushed to complete my NaNoWriMo well before the end of November was to give me the breathing room to prepare for guest. After taking a break, I've gone back into my work in pr…

Flash Fiction: Applying the MICE Model

I mentioned previously that I've been watching Brandon Sanderson's lectures on writing Science Fiction and Fantasy at BYU. Lecture #7 features a guest lecturer, Mary Robinette Kowal. In the lecture, she covers the MICE quotient and has the class apply it to a piece of flash ficti…