Writing
Questionnaires for Writing Character Profiles - Creative Writing Help. Enter your e-mail to get the e-book for FREE. We'll also keep you informed about interesting website news. "I have searched the web and used different worksheets, but none have come close to your worksheets and descriptions of (what to do and what not to do). Both courses I have taken have with Creative Writing Now have been amazing.
Each time I have learned something new. The one thing I love, you take everything apart and give examples.
" - Katlen Skye "As usual - I already love the course on Irresistible Fiction, rewriting a lot and improving greatly even after the first lesson. Thanks so much for the great courses.
" - Kitty Safken “Essentials of Fiction proved that I could indeed write and I wrote every day, much to my boyfriend's dismay (waa sniff).” - Jill Gardner "I am loving the course and the peer interaction on the blog is fantastic!!!
" "I'm enjoying the weekly email course, Essentials of Poetry Writing. "Thank you for all the material in this course. "I'm learning so much.
Overcoming Writer's Block. Tension. Hook Your Readers With Tension By Laura Backes, Write4Kids.com Tension. Without it, life would be—let's face it—boring. So would fiction.
Tension works with conflict to raise the emotional level of the text to a boiling point. "Tension" is a loaded word, and can be misleading. Tension is what hooks readers of any age and keeps them turning the pages. .
* The ticking clock. .
* Dialogue. .
* Pacing. .
* Sentence structure. Each story requires a different kind of tension. Laura Backes is the author of Best Books for Kids Who (Think They) Hate to Read from Prima/Random House. Copyright © 2002, Children's Book Insider, LLC. Writing Tips - General. On other pages of this site, you can read many of my best writing tips. But this page is for you! Your tip can be about a grammar or spelling rule, the writing process, or how to get published.
Anything you think another writer will appreciate belongs here. Click below to see writing tips from other visitors to this page... Spelling, Spelling, Spelling!!!!!! What to do for Writers' Block. Agony first, ecstasy second As you and your contributors have noted, reading is essential; lots of reading and extra reading in fact cannot be emphasized enough. Avoid time warp Keep notes of details and timeline separate from what you will write or need to write in your novel. Google Images for the win! Your writing - your interests One problem I often face is that I get bored half - way through. Cliches and Sterotypes We always roll our eyes at these.
Interesting characters Think of how you would you be if you were the character you describe. Backwards! Dream When writing you must think! Enjoy it! 1.
Humor Writing Tips | Comedy Writing Tips | Blogging Tips | Humor Blogging. How to Plot a Character Driven Book in 3 Easy Steps | Historical Romance Author Robyn DeHart, Legend Hunters , Ladies Amateur Sleuth Society. Theme & Premise: Or How to Plot a Character Driven Book in 3 Easy Steps It is said that there are two types of writers: plotters and seat of the pants writers (or fly into the mist writers).
Obviously the majority of us fall somewhere in between. I’m a serious plotter, one of those scene-by-scene plotters who knows primarily everything that will happen in the rough draft. But don’t let that frighten you pansters away. These tools can be used no matter what type of writer you are. Step 1 – THEME.
To define your theme, you need to know what theme is, so what is theme? But how do you come up with a theme out of thin air, especially if you’re doing this with a book you haven’t even written yet? So now you have your theme, let’s move on to Step 2 – PREMISE/CHARACTER LESSON. This is the biggie for me when I’m doing my prewriting. Character lesson or premise is just what it sounds like: what does your character need to learn? Which brings me right into Step 3 – CHARACTER ARC.
That’s it.
Creating a Realistic Fantasy World. By Penny Ehrenkranz Did you ever wonder how David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Orson Scott Card, Stephen King, Piers Anthony, or J. R. R. Tolkien created their worlds? These and other successful fantasy writers found the magic to create realistic fantasy worlds, but they didn't find it in a book of spells. Creating your fantasy world means building a world based upon reality and making sure that your reader knows the rules of that world.
J. How do you go about creating a reality that readers will accept as readily? Defining the Physical World Defining your locale can be a good place to start. Orson Scott Card began his fantasy novel, Hart's Hope, by designing a map. Instead of a map (or in addition to it), you may prefer to jot down descriptions of places you will need to use in your story. Defining the Rules of Magic Magic is often the key in fantasy.
In Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom of Landover series, wizards and witches have innate power. Defining a Consistent Reality Related Articles:
How To Write a Death Scene | Writerly Life. People often visit Creative Writing Corner searching for answers about how to write a death scene, so it’s about time that I gave my thoughts about it. I was first given the assignment to write a death scene as a stand-alone piece when I was a freshman in college, in my very first creative writing class. I chose to write a creative non-fiction piece about a relative of mine. The piece ended up being fairly successful; it was published in my college newspaper and I received a lot of very kind comments about it.
Here are a few things I learned from that writing experience: For someone witnessing the death of a beloved person, the scene is not just about the way the person is going. After the jump: more things to do in a death scene. It’s very easy to get cheesy in a death scene, instantly robbing your story of its tenderness and emotion. What made people respond to my written piece and call it poignant weren’t the heavy-handed bits or the sweeping generalizations, but the details.
World Building 101. World Building 101 by Lee Masterson You are the ultimate creator of your fictional world. No matter where or when your story is set, regardless of what events unfold, and despite the characters you introduce to your readers, they are all products of your unique imagination.
"But I write romance set in the present time," I hear you cry. It doesn't matter whether your story is set in 16th century Middle Europe, or the 28th century Altarian star-system, your story still belongs in a world created entirely by you. The good news is you still get your chance to put on your megalomaniac's hat and play God! Regardless of where (or when) your story is set, YOU have decided your characters' destinies for them. But there's a whole lot more to world-building than simply creating a nice backdrop for your characters to parade against. In short, the fictional world your characters live in must seem plausible to your readers.
Ask yourself these things about your characters and your story: -
Creative Writing For Dummies Cheat Sheet. Rewriting and editing helps to tighten up your work. But it can be difficult – what to chop and when to stop may not be clear, and you may change your mind more than once during the process. Ask yourself whether you need to take out: Unnecessary information and explanation. Passages of dialogue that go on too long. Clunky descriptions that give too much detail. Clumsy images that don’t really work.
You may need to add or expand: Something you know but have forgotten to tell the reader; perhaps the age of the main character. You may need to move: Dramatic sections to make a stronger opening. In your final edit: Check for grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes.
Creating A Great Antagonist | Self-Published Authors Helping Other Authors. The antagonist or antagonists of a story are often the central driving force to the story or what causes the central driving force to come into being.
That being said, a lot of thought has to go into creating an antagonist, especially the central antagonist. In fact, for horror novelists such as myself, it’s often one of the first things we come up with in a story, and what we often use to describe our stories to others (ex. “an evil clown demon terrorizes a small town”, “a cult leader with horrifying dark powers and those who stand against him”, “two children fall through a doorway to a world where the demonic ruler has a terrifying interest in the young boy”).
When designing antagonists (human or otherwise), there are a few things I try to keep in mind in order to make them as evil/terrifying/monstrous as possible. 1. 2. 3. And now that we’ve come up with the antagonist’s motives and who’s going to try to stop him. 4. This is basically how I design villains. Like this: Like Loading...
She's Such a Character: 8 Tips for Creating Characters. By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy I'm well into week two of a terrible cold, but just well enough to get something accomplished, so I'm dipping into the archives again. Here are some tips to consider when creating a character. Characters make the story. No matter how intriguing the idea or exciting the plot, if there isn't a character there we care about (even if it's just curiosity or fascination) the rest of it falls flat.
There are all kinds of ways to develop characters. One of the more common ways is the character worksheet--long lists of questions you fill out that determine physical characteristics, likes, dislikes, history, etc. I'm not one of those writers. What I've found more useful, is to ask questions about my characters that pertain to their lives and how that works with the story.
And if you can't answer everything, or only have vague ideas at first, that's okay. Here are some things to consider when creating a character: 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. This explores her moral beliefs. 3.
Top 10 Tricks to Make your Villain Stand Out. Welcome back to the column that breaks down gaming into what’s really important, ten things at a time! Any story arc needs a good villain. The best big bads are more than just another devil or vampire or dragon. These ten suggestions can help take your villain above and beyond the ordinary and give your players a more memorable game. 1. Why do people follow this villain? 2. The villain should have a single overriding goal that drives all his or her actions. 3. Along with the goal, place concrete steps the villain needs to take to reach the goal. 4. The villain should be making progress if nobody is stopping him or her. 5. Give your villain a weakness the adventurers can figure out and exploit. 6. Avoid faceless or generic threats. 7.
Make the villain’s presence known in every corner of the campaign. 8. One of the best ways to make the villain’s presence known is by reusing symbols and calling cards. 9. 10. Powered By DT Author Box Written by loganbonner Rating: 4.2/5 (25 votes cast)
10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing. Dear Teenage Writers: Hi there. I was once a teenage writer like you (see goofy picture to the right), although that was so long ago that between now and then, I could have been a teenager all over again.
Nevertheless, recently I’ve been thinking about offering some thoughts and advice on being a teenage writer, based on my own experiences of being one, and on my experiences of being a teenage writer who kept being a writer when he grew up. So here are some of those thoughts, for your consideration. I’m going to talk to you about writing as straight as I can; there’s a possibility that some of what I say to you might come off as abrupt and condescending.
I apologize in advance for that, but you should know that I sometimes come off as abrupt and condescending toward everyone, i.e., it’s not just you. Also, I hope you don’t mind if I don’t go out of my way to use current slang and such; there’s very little more pathetic than a 36-year-old man dropping slang to prove he’s hip to the kids.
10 Writing "Rules" We Wish More Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors Would Break. Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service. I give a hearty Here Here for #4! There is nothing wrong with telling a story that fits within the covers of a single book. Honestly, I respect a well crafted short story more than a shelf load of volumes that purports to tell a single story. Remember, the whole Trilogy+ got started when the publisher got fed up with the fact Tolkien wouldn't finish.
The moment I see something like "Book One of the (insert name of place or magic item and latin number)ogy", I want to put the book down. Flagged. How Much of My World Do I Build?
First, let me say that worldbuilding is an essential skill for every writer, regardless of genre. Not all writers need to concentrate on all areas of worldbuilding, but every writer must do some worldbuilding if he hopes to have a novel that is coherent, consistent, and real. Second, writers seem to come in three varieties — those who really have no idea what worldbuilding is or why they should bother with it; those who do know, but figure they’ll wing the details as they go; and those obsessive folks who secretly believe that they really can’t start the book until the whole planet is in place. I’ve spent time in all three camps — most of my time in the last one. The system works.
It can work for you. Build only what you need; imply the rest. What do you need? A — Special physics It used to be that the only places where you might run into special physics were in SF and fantasy novels. If you require special physics, however, you must now answer the following questions. B — Organized terrain. 7 Essential Elements of Character Creation. Last week Nikki Jefford requested a post on developing characters. There are many different approaches toward developing characters for a story. Last year I wrote a post on different ways to get to know your characters which might help anyone getting started. The techniques I included were the use of visual aids, character questionnaires and family trees. Each author needs to find the technique that works for them. No matter what method an author chooses to adopt, there are a number of elements that are essential to include in the creation of every character: The name: Many writers will start with a name and build on the character from there.
The appearance: There are a lot of factors to consider for the appearance of a character: their height and build, how they project themselves, if they have any scars or tattoos, and so much more. The motivation: The easiest way I get to know my characters is to find out what drives them. --I was recently tagged by Tiffany Garner.
8 Ways to Write Better Characters. Where Should a Second Chapter Start?
Keyboard Smash Writers!, 5 Tips on Describing Your Setting. Themes & Things To Keep In Mind When Writing Fantasy Stories and Adventures » Daily Encounter. List of Feeling Words. Exercises for Fiction Writers - Page 2. Fiction Writer's Character Chart - EpiGuide.com.
Seven Common Character Types. Sheet-for-Emotions. How to Make Readers Feel Emotion. How to Structure A Story: The Eight-Point Arc. Skintonewords-alpha.