by Guest Blogger |
“Curse Your Sudden Yet Inevitable Betrayal!”
Sometimes the characters that we think are good guys turn out to be bad guys. How do you create believable traitors?
In The Lord Of The Rings, Saruman was Gandolf’s friend and mentor, the wizard that he trusted most. In The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo turns to his old friend Lando Calrissian.
Many dramatic scenes in fiction begin when the hero realizes too late that a trusted friend is actually working for the other side. As writers, we create all kinds of characters, good guys, bad guys, innocent bystanders. Creating characters that end up turning on their friends, however, has some particular challenges.
by Guest Blogger |
Author John Irving is notorious for writing the last line of every novel first. What we can glean from this daunting factoid is that Irving has a clear picture of where he wants the story to end up. The work is “simply” writing the book.
Would that we all be so lucky!
by Guest Blogger |
In a few months I’m releasing my first book, a memoir titled Packing Light: Thoughts on Living Life with Less Baggage. One of the difficulties I encountered while writing was: how am I supposed to tell my story in an honest way, while still protecting the people and relationships involved?
I don’t think I’m alone in this dilemma.
by Guest Blogger |
At some point in my life I fell into the habit of introducing myself as a poet. My opening line was always “Hi, I’m Michael; and I’m a poet.”
Without fail 96.32% of the time the response would be “I used to write poetry as well, but I grew out of it.” The other 3.68% would probably snicker and point (at 6’2″ I don’t exactly fit the stereotype of lit–geek). I find this strange because I rather enjoy poetry, immensely if I dare add.
So I started to wonder, how can you make sure you never “grow out of” poetry? Here’s what I came up with:
by Guest Blogger |
There are various elements that make up a great story—plot, story development, character growth, depth. All of these contribute to turning a good story into a great story. However, one more element that can spice up your story is a good action scene.
But how do you write a good action scene? Here are five tips to get you started:
