Dialogue – Putting Words in Your Characters’ Mouths By Jeanne C. Stein Last month we looked at plotting and defining our inciting incident. In this lesson we’ll touch on one of the most important building blocks in writing: Dialogue. There are lots of authors who excel at dialogue, but none better than mystery writer, the…
Tag: Jeanne C. Stein
Adventures in Genre Writing: Lesson Five
By Jeanne C. Stein Story Structure – Plotting, Inciting Incident This class we look at story structure, beginning with constructing a plot. There are as many ways to plot a story as there are writers to plot them. When I started writing the Anna Strong series, I used the “seat of the pants” method—I knew…
Adventures in Genre Writing: Lesson Four – Character Development
By Jeanne C. Stein I’m in China the rest of the month on vacation. No laptop. No cell phone. Will I survive? If I’m back next month, you’ll know I did! Since we spent most of last class discussing rules, here are some of NYT bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver’s regarding characters: 1. They must be…
Adventures in Genre Writing: Lesson Three – Some Rules
By Jeanne C. Stein I know, I know. I, more than anyone else, hate it when someone says there are “rules” to writing, especially since exceptional writer W. Somerset Maugham warns: There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. And of course, for every rule we set there…
Lesson Two: Where to start? Point of View, Setting and World Building
By Jeanne C. Stein The topics we’re going to cover today involve some basics of storytelling. In fact to some of you, this may be nothing but review. Especially if you were lucky enough to attend last weekend’s conference. It’s the first one in the seventeen years I’ve been a member of RMFW that I…