Category: scene
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Friday’s Findings: My 50K Novel Week 1
I’ve decided to prove that I can write fifty thousand words in thirty days on my own — without anyone or any organization giving me a deadline. Here are the parameters I set for myself: I will write every day in May. To prepare before May 1st, I made a list of scenes. I plan…
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Friday’s Findings: Creating a scene palette
When creating a scene for the first time, I have a list. And I try to hit as many points on that list as possible: Point-of-view character Establish setting Have a purpose (introduce a character, move the story along, etc.) Create conflict Build suspense The list goes on … But before writing the rough draft…
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Friday’s Findings: Character Viewpoint and Description
I am a technical editor for an airline, and recently my department moved from one building to a new one. I love my new office. Everything is new and clean. It’s located in an airplane hangar, so I can just step away from my desk and go see the airplanes up close as the mechanics…
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Friday’s Findings: Five things I’ve learned in five years
In my post last Friday, I talked about writers should keep learning their craft. I thought about writing practices I had learned in the last five years. I took an inventory and came up with two lists: writing craft tips writing life tips Today, I want to show you my writing craft tips. These are…
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Friday’s Findings: Bullet Point Outline – Do you do it?
Want to write a rough draft of a scene like a champ? For a while now I’ve been trying this method using bullet points. It’s not my invention, but it makes sense to me. Here’s the short version: Spend some time thinking about what needs to happen in the scene. As you think, type out…
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Friday’s Findings: The Cat and the Snowflake
In my last post, I discussed using the Snowflake Method simultaneously with the Save the Cat beats to develop a story and end up with a first draft. I expanded this idea with an Excel spreadsheet that can be downloaded. Or if you prefer, right click on the graphic below to expand it. Once the image…
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Friday’s Findings: The Recipe for Interiority
There’s this new term I’ve come across in the fiction craft world: interiority. I had never heard of it until last year when I took Mary Kole’s online class called Crafting Dynamic Characters. Great class. As far as using it as a writing craft term, I don’t know who coined interiority, but Kole built her…
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Friday’s Findings: The Exact Detail
“In all genres, I wait in ambush for the exact, perfect, telling detail, the thing that makes the scene or line come alive.” —Lauren Groff Friday’s Findings: Antagonistic Obstacles – Does Your Story Really Need Them? (beemgee.com) Self-Publishing Steps You Might Not Know About (jennamoreci.com) Facing Fears In Writing And Life With Rachael Herron (thecreativepenn.com)…
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Friday’s Findings: Doing Whatever It Takes
The title of today’s blog entry refers to an update on my writing progress. I’ve been stuck for several weeks. I’ve been having trouble finishing even one scene. I decided to take action. In my science fiction novel, my characters spend about twenty scenes on a planet called Zonvillon. I had already written a couple…
