Category: description

  • Writing Style Outcasts: Adjectives

    Writing Style Outcasts: Adjectives

    Not the cool kids at school. This is a series on the aspects of writing style that are bullied. But they serve a purpose. Yesterday, I talked about adverbs. Today, I talk about adjectives. Descriptors like adjectives and adverbs are kicked out the writing style kingdom like lepers. “Don’t use adverbs!” “Don’t use adjectives!” But…

  • Show Don’t Tell: Misunderstood But Important

    Show Don’t Tell: Misunderstood But Important

    Call me weird, but I find “Show Don’t Tell” articles interesting. The following is a recent post at Reddit.com about this writing concept in the Writing subreddit: This is one of the most misunderstood rules in all of prose fiction. It’s important to understand that every single sentence you write is simultaneously telling one thing…

  • Your Character’s Appearance

    Your Character’s Appearance

    See the infographic here. Photo by Pille Kirsi from Pexels

  • Friday’s Findings

    Friday’s Findings

    Here are some articles on writing I’ve read lately . . . The Secret to Writing Fascinating Villains Mythic Guide to Heroes & Villains — The Fatal Flaw and Unlikely Heroes Do Some People Lack the Talent to be a Successful Author? Dynamics in Fiction Writing (Advanced Writing Technique) Motive: The Key to Writing Stories…

  • Friday’s Findings

    Friday’s Findings

    Articles on writing I’ve read recently: How to Get a Literary Agent for Your Book Procrastination Is Part of the Process Writing In Media Res 3 Tips To Writing Page-Turning Fiction, Starting Today How do you describe a place? 6 setting tips Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels

  • Mucking around in the rough draft of your NaNoWriMo creation

    Mucking around in the rough draft of your NaNoWriMo creation

    For NaNoWriMo, here are some things I’m leaving in as I write: Before November, I’ve already written a one or two sentence summary of each scene. For NaNoWriMo, I write a “scribble version” of the scene. This is a more developed summary containing key phrases, important dialogue, cues when to describe this or that, etc.…

  • Character Creations: Laying the Foundation

    Character Creations: Laying the Foundation

    I am having a blast creating characters for my NaNoWriMo project this year. I used some tools I haven’t applied in the past and I wanted to tell you about them. But first, a caveat: this is just for the beginning of character development. I believe in just laying a foundation for a character before…

  • How much detail and backstory?

    How much detail and backstory?

    NOTE: I dusted off some notes I took for a webinar, How to Revise Your NaNo Novel, from January 2016. Grant Faulkner hosted the segment on writing advice with guest speakers KM Weiland, James Scott Bell and Kami Garcia. The following were some of the questions asked. How do you balance detail? Too much, too…

  • My Fiction Writing Toolkit

    My Fiction Writing Toolkit

    When I write, I motivate myself by reviewing some of my Fiction Writing Tools. For some reason they get me going. Below are articles from this blog that are sure to motivate you: Character Character Workshop Temptations to Avoid Conflict Conflict Workshop Description Describe an Object Ten Ways Dialogue Subtext Plot Hero’s Journey Three Act…