Which came first, the river or the rocks? In the case of the natural stone stairway which leads from the shore of Surface Creek to our manicured lawn, the river existed first. Think of the flowing river as the context of a written story. Think of the rocks as the story. In my accompanying photo,…
When crafting a novel, it’s easy to focus primarily on the development of the protagonist and the primary characters. But remember, your protagonist does not live in isolation. The true mark of a skilled writer lies in their ability to breathe life into secondary characters as well—and in fact, these are sometimes the characters who…
Great twists need plausibility. Don’t try to fool readers.
Recently I’ve found myself in a quandary about critiquing another writer for the ‘head hopping’ error. I mean, what actually constitutes head hopping?
In a recent workshop, I was asked to explain the difference between passive and active voice. Think of active voice as being more direct, with a noun (the subject of the sentence) doing a verb (the action of the sentence): “Daryl caught the ball” (noun=Daryl, verb=caught) or “The script revealed the killer on the first…