In Episode 1 of The Masterwork Experiment, Shawn Coyne and I discussed the parameters of the experiment. I’m supposed to break Annie Proulx’s 10,500 word long-short story into its component scenes, and later into its beats. Beats are the sub-parts of scenes. I don’t understand them yet, but Shawn has described them as “units of …
Ten weeks writing a novella in public with Shawn Coyne as my editor…and a whole series of very strict constraints. What could go wrong?
From a male client working on a novel: I have a question on a sensitive topic and it’s a bit scary for me to ask. I’m thinking of using a boss of mine as a model for [Character X, an antagonist]. People get criticized for making women “shrill” or “too emotional” and I know this …
Like most novelists, I just wanted to write. Not market myself.
At the Story Grid Editor Roundtable Podcast, we’ll be taking a break for the festive month. To make sure our subscribers still get a little something from us on our Wednesday posting schedule, we’re making some short episodes on topics that interest us as writers. The first Bite Size Edition goes up tomorrow, December 5, …
Now in audio! I’ve published a new Fundamental Fridays article on the Story Grid blog. It’s called Thawing the Fiction Freeze, and is aimed at competent nonfiction writers who freeze up in the face of fiction. These are the writers whose prose tends to turn purple as soon as they begin writing a story. Or …
There are a LOT of book people in Portland. Writers, editors, small publishers, bookdealers, librarians…and readers. Readers galore. That’s why Portlanders pack the house to capacity every year for the Portland Book Festival (formerly, and better, known as Wordstock). This year, my friends Sue Campbell and Rachelle Ramirez and I got together, bought an exhibitor …
When a casual study group turned into the official Story Grid Editor Roundtable podcast, it was suddenly important to go for a better sound than I was getting on Skype with a cheap headset mic, and the echoing void of my living room. No way was I going to bike to some rented sound …
How well do you know your secondary and tertiary characters? A common early-draft issue is minor characters who act as mere props for the protagonist’s arc. Need a crisis for a main character? Subject a secondary character to an accident or illness. Need a contrast to your heroine? Pick a few top-of-mind traits (the nerd, …
One of my editing clients posed this great question: Do you have any thoughts about when to write dialogue and when to just say “they talked about this or that” or “she told him about the project”? Why yes. Yes I do. Every time you use narrative as a substitute for dialogue, you’re telling. Dialogue …
