When It’s Time to Start Over
How many of you have been writing for a while? This article is for you—though if you’re brand-new, this will eventually apply to you, too. Ahem. There will come a day when it’s time to start that story over from scratch.
What Is Plot? The 6 Elements of Plot and How to Use Them
Plot has a specific structure. It follows a format that sucks readers in; introduces characters and character development at a pace guaranteed to create fans; and compels readers to keep reading in order to satisfy conflict and answer questions.
Do you want readers to love your story? (Who doesn’t, am I right?) Then you need to understand plot.
Characterization: 6 Revealing Prompts to Know Your Character Better
Here’s the underlying principle: your characters are people. People are complicated; I suspect you might know a few. Characters are much the same way. Your reader will relate to them if they behave like people, and for characters to behave like people, they need to be built like people.
You need to know your characters like you do other humans, and these six prompts will help you pull that off.
Revision: How to “Kill Your Darlings” and Survive the Process
For those of us who’ve been in the writing biz a while, there is a quote by Stephen King we’ve all seen a thousand times (and if you’re new to writing, fear not: you’ll see this quote a thousand times, too).
15 Haunted Halloween Writing Prompts
Writers write to get a reaction out of their readers. No matter the genre, you want your reader to feel something when they read your writing.
For horror writers, that feeling is fear. But it’s also so much more than that.
Great horror stories take the everyday creepy and turn it into something even more creepy (and often become a condemnation of injustices in society). And then, the great thing is, horror stories teach you that those creepy things can be beaten. That’s what keeps bringing the readers back.
And that’s why horror writers keep churning out the fear.
Maybe you love writing scary stories. Maybe you don’t, but this is something you’d like to take a whack at, just for practice (we’re fans about that around here!).
Just like reading outside your genre is valuable to mastering the writing craft, so is writing a scary story.
This story doesn’t have to be long, it could be a short story. Try for something you can write in one sitting, like 1,500 words.
To get you started, use one of the Halloween writing prompts suggested in this article. Then let loose, and have fun!
