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Tag Archives: Tips and Tricks

Amazon Imprint Submission Guidelines

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 [...]

Write like Your Parents Are Dead

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 [...]

On Storytelling Terminology: Hidden Story

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 [...]

On Storytelling Terminology: Conflict and Adversity

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. [...]

On Story Structure: The Story Question Worksheet

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 [...]