Tuesday, January 10, 2012
I’m going to start with the punchline today, and then backtrack to tell you where the information came from (and why it’s interesting). I’ll even explain why I told the story in reverse order. But first, the info. Submission Requirements for the Amazon Imprint 47North If you want to submit a novel for consideration by [...]
Thursday, September 8, 2011
On Tuesday I wrote a little story about getting my mouth washed out with soap for singing some dirty words. I like that story. It characterizes me pretty clearly in a short scene or two. It also shows the inefficacy of corporal punishment (at least of the soap-based variety), because I’ve grown up to be [...]
Yesterday’s post on the narrative difference between conflict and adversity ended with some specific advice: Avoid adversity by putting malicious cause behind your protagonist’s setbacks. The best way to do that is to make your antagonist responsible, but sometimes it can be a challenge to follow through on that. The trick is to manage your [...]
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Also tagged Creative Writing, Deborah Chester, Document Structure, Hidden Story, Joshua Unruh, Master of Professional Writing, Plot, Prewriting, Storytelling, Teaching, Writing Exercise
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Way back when, I tried to start a series around here on some of the specialized storytelling terminology I’ve been learning in my Master of Professional Writing course. I got into Plates and Hooks and Scene Questions and Story Questions, and that diverted me off into a separate series on Story Questions. I’m not complaining. [...]
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Also tagged Alan Pogue, Catastrophe, Conflict, Creative Writing, Deborah Chester, Hidden Story, Master of Professional Writing, Plot, Revising, Scene Structure, Storytelling, Writing Rules
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It was a couple weeks ago when I talked about the importance of designing good story questions. Since then I’ve talked about the diverse properties of bones, and some rules for using story questions to build a structurally sound novel. Leaving out the cute story about my kid, most of the discussion has been about [...]
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Also tagged Creative Writing, Deborah Chester, Document Structure, Plot, Prewriting, Revising, Rewriting, Storytelling, Teaching, Writing Exercise, Writing Rules
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