Category: Point of view
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Keeping the Distance
Scott Nicholson says in Seven Bad Habits of Unsuccessful Writers: Newer writers tend to rely on “He saw,” “He felt,” “He smelled,” “He tasted,” or “He heard” instead of just letting the actions or sensations occur. It shows a lack of confidence. If you have done a good job of securing your character viewpoint, then…
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Checklist for writing a scene
When it came to my novel, I honestly didn’t think I’d have to do that. But, here I am, the stage of my novel where I am going over each scene, and I am “killing my darlings.” I want to keep most of the scenes, but I have a criteria I go over that may…
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Fiction Writing Workshop: Action Scenes
He extends his sword and then utters these words: “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” The most memorable part of this fight scene are these words. But why? To find the answer, I wanted to know more about writing effective fight and action scenes. My novel has several of…
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Books on writing I read in 2015
Every year I try and read a couple of books on the writing craft. I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but, honestly, I love reading stuff on how to write fiction. Here is what I read in 2015: Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir by Hank Quense Quense offers practical tips on how…
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Quense tells how he writes his books and doesn’t apologize for it
Here is my review of Hank Quense’s Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir as it appears in Goodreads and Amazon: I’ve read many books on writing fiction and after a while I see the same theories and best practices over and over. This is not necessarily a bad thing because a reminder is always helpful. However,…
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What I’m learning as I write my novel
When I say I’ve written six novels, this is what I really mean: I’ve written the rough draft of six novels. Sure I like to say “I’ve written six novels” to try to impress people, but if anyone would read these “novels”, he would read for five minutes, stick out his tongue, squinch up his…
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Writing Blog Roundup: book blurb, better writing, be a writer, point-of-view, got theme
Some articles I recently read on writing blogs: Margaret Atwood Rejects Book Blurb Requests with a Poem. Looking for a respected author to give you a blurb about your new novel? Don’t ask Margaret Atwood. You Don’t Need to Become a Better Writer. Every day, I get a message from a writer who wants to…
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Writing Blog Roundup: consistent relationships, large cast, 47 rejections, write well, third person
What I’ve read lately in the writing blog arena: Keeping relationships consistent. On my current WIP novel, I am revising to make sure the character relationships are consistent . . . Two ways to manage a large cast of characters in your novel. On the recommendation of a coworker, I started reading Ken Follett’s Century…
Andrew M. Friday 