by David Safford |
It’s difficult to know how much to plan when starting a new story. Is it essential to have each and every character, scene, and key change in mind beforehand? How much, or how little, do you need? (Hint: it’s less than you might think!)
The bad news is, no matter how much you plan, your first draft is destined to be messy. But even if you’re a pantser, there are a few key questions you should answer before you start. When you do, you’ll be building your story on a rock-solid foundation that will give you the freedom to take risks that won’t cost you a ton of time and energy in the long run.
by J. D. Edwin |
If you’ve finished writing a first draft, you’ve accomplished something huge. You should be proud of yourself! But once the celebration dies down, you might experience a moment of silence as you look at your finished manuscript. You wonder: What comes next?
Maybe you’re not sure what you should do next, or maybe you have an idea of all the things that could follow and feel disorganized and paralyzed by all the possibilities.
The fact is, a lot of budding writers don’t think beyond the “finishing the book” part of writing.
So what is next? This article teaches you what to do after writing a book.
by Monica M. Clark |
I’ve changed the first page of my novel a lot. I can’t even tell you how many times. It happened because as I was writing, I followed a lot of writing blogs, attended a lot of author talks, and browsed a lot of guides that had a lot to say about how to write the first page of a book.
The thinking is that readers thumbing through books in the bookstore and agents alike make snap decisions based on those initial words.
And while it’s essential that the entire book is great, the reality is that the first page of your book sets the tone and expectation for the quality of writing for the rest of the book.
You need to make it good! Something that can uphold the excitement of your book idea and that would impress a publishing company.
by J. D. Edwin |
Have you tried writing a book but failed to finish it? Do you wish you could have some writing success, but each time you set out on an idea, something stops you?
Do you have a writing system?
If you want to be a successful writer, it helps to establish a solid, reliable writing system that evaluates your writing process. To do this, you need to experiment with three key steps to designing the best system for you.
by J. D. Edwin |
How do you plan a story? If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard about different creative writing methods to finish a first draft. Is there a right or wrong to these? Have you tried different method, but still don’t feel like it’s a perfect fit?
At some point in your process, it’s likely that you will with primarily pants or plot a novel. Maybe you even do both at different times in your writing process.
In this article, you’ll learn when the best times are for planning your novel. You’ll also learn different stages of that planning process when you might prefer to pants, plot, or some hybrid method of the two.
by Joslyn Chase |
You sit down, ready to write, and you’re excited because this scene is going to be full of terrific action-packed conflict to grab your reader. But then you wonder, do you even know how to write action scenes?
Are plot points and blow-by-blow action really what keeps readers turning pages? Do you know how to write the kind of action that will add suspense to the story, rev your readers’ heart rate, and leave them dying to know what happens next?
Creating an action scene that works on screen is difficult. Creating an action scene that works on the page might be an even steeper challenge!
Luckily, there are writing strategies to help you write an action scene with skill.
