I could tell you not to overthink your story opening in the first draft. But I’m not sure that’s even good advice. Thinking, thinking, and thinking some more is often what needs to happen with story-making. Finding that entry point and realizing those first 500 words can be critical to setting your feet on the…
One way you can up your writing game is to challenge yourself to look for and eliminate the vast majority of “practical action” sentences in your prose. I’m referring to those functional movements your characters make to accomplish basic tasks. Things like coming downstairs in the morning or walking across the kitchen. The underlined sentence…
We know dialogue makes for good storytelling and that getting two people talking can make a scene interesting. But, of course, dialogue isn’t interesting just because it exists. The possible things your characters could say at any moment need to be curated and carefully shaped by you. That shaping means you’re going to want every…
A few years ago I joined a bunch of writing groups on Facebook. I wanted to see what writers were talking about—I wanted to understand what questions they were asking in hopes that I’d learn how to better help my clients and students. I jumped in here or there to offer support or weigh in…
Here’s what happens to me all the time—I’ll be writing a scene and I need a character to enter the room, or I want two acquaintances to take their seats at a café, or I want to start a new chapter with a strong sense of atmosphere, etc., and I freeze up. I’ll have no…