Let’s talk about character and plot for a minute, and how one can’t exist without the other. Everything that happens in the plot forces your character to react, and your character’s reaction impacts what goes on in the plot. This creates a connected string of events that lead to the story’s ultimate conclusion. Action/reaction. Time…
Category: Blog
Adventures in Genre Writing: Lesson Seven – Conflict
By Jeanne C. Stein What is conflict? Why is it important in your writing? Those are redundant questions, aren’t they? In fact, you’ve heard them so many times, you’re sick of them. They are mentioned in every article, every class, every discussion on writing. Why? Because conflict is crucial to good story telling. A dictionary…
Convention Report – Coastal Magic Con
By Jeffe Kennedy A year ago, a gal I knew through Twitter pinged me and asked if I’d consider attending her conference as a featured author the following spring. She promised me Florida beaches in February, enthusiastic readers and great, organized programming. Wow – did she ever deliver! I just last night returned from the…
Paying for it
By Mary Gillgannon In the month since my latest book came out, I’ve dutifully attempted to promote it. I updated my website, guest-posted on nearly a dozen blogs, tweeted and Facebooked (in my own pathetic way), had a Goodreads giveaway, and engaged the help of the other authors on my publisher’s promotion loop to get…
MORE POLITICS IN FICTION
By Kevin Paul Tracy After writing last month’s column on infusing your fiction with real-world politics, I thought I’d address this month’s column to how to infuse fictional politics into your fictional world. In fiction it is often necessary to build a world as a stage on which the events of your novel or series…