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Tag Archives: Conflict Resolution Cycle

On Writing Technique: Chasing Catastrophe

I started the week talking about writing 17,000 words in three days…and all the catastrophes that made it necessary in the first place. Then yesterday I talked about a new writing technique I’ve been studying in class that pushes a novel toward lots of conflict and catastrophe. Today I want to make the connection. And [...]

On Writing Technique: Conflict and Catastrophe

Okay, I’ve been mentioning my Master of Professional Writing program left and right, but I want to say up front that full credit for the information in this week’s and next week’s posts goes to Deborah Chester. She’s the professor teaching my Writing the Novel class, and a lot of these ideas come straight out [...]

On the Conflict Resolution Cycle: The CRC Worksheet

Okay, for a week now I’ve been talking about the Conflict Resolution Cycle worksheet. It’s a questionnaire/assignment I cooked up a couple years back to force a writer through the questions necessary to convert a story idea into an actual narrative. Most of the questions explain themselves, so instead of opening with a big long [...]

On the Conflict Resolution Cycle: Designing a Narrative

Earlier this week I told a story. It was one I had to tell, under the circumstances. On the day I launched Gods Tomorrow to the public, you’d better bet I was going to talk about my novel. It works well as an illustration for the writing principles I want to talk about this week, [...]

On the Conflict Resolution Cycle: Gods Tomorrow

A week and a half ago — Friday, October 1 — I was at work when I got a call from Trish. She could barely talk, she was so excited. She finally found the words, though. “Aaron…a package just arrived. I think it’s your book.” I wanted to shout, “Well what are you waiting for?!” [...]