Pantsers and Plotters – Finding a Middle Ground

Okay - I'll be honest. I have a completely different post I wanted to write. I wanted to show all you the cool swag I ordered for the launch. But then I thought, no...it hould be a surprise. The problem with that - I am so LOUSY at surprises. I get too excited and I …

The Anatomy of a SHORT Synopsis

After playing around on the interwebz this week I discovered a theme emerge among my writerly buds...lots of angst over the dreaded synopsis. Now, I'm not saying writing a synopsis is a piece of cake - far from it. But, there is a way to do it that s a little less painful. The editors, …

How do You Write?

I know, I know...this may seem like a silly question. But, really, it's a sincere one. I get into conversations with my crit partners all the time about the writing process.  Everything from where we get our ideas and inspiration, to how we actually go about laying out the story. Some of us research and plot, …

When to hit delete on that scene.

I thought I would build on a post from last week about story creation.  In that post I presented the questions I ask myself when I craft a story:  What is the mc's main problem, what is at stake for the mc, and what is the tension of each and every scene.  This post focuses …

Blog Chain Time: The Art of Story Creation

Welcome to November and Day One of NaNoWriMo.  I, for one, am both nervous and excited at the prospect of what this month entails.  But I digress... This post is about the Blog Chain!  It was my turn to pick a topic.  And so, in honor of NaNo and story construction, I decided to ask …

Creating Drama

I am an intense person.  Those of you who have ventured over to my other blog, Growing Up Gifted, know this about me.  As a result, my characters are intense.  Or at least, they experience intense things within their stories.  But I do this, not because they are offshoots of my personality. No, I do this …

To plot or not to plot…that IS the question

Most of my writerly friends do not outline or plot out their stories.  They write with free abandon, letting the characters drive the story to a particular end.  Others I know write and rewrite an outline or plot line.  They vary in terms of the details in the outline, but they need the outline to …

Compelling the Reader to Turn the Page

Compel - To force to a course of action Some of my favorite books are the ones the keep me turning the page.  I devour them, unable to put them down.  If something causes me to stop reading, I find myself thinking, stewing, obsessing over the book. So, what is the key to such a book?  …

About Plot, Part III – the Resolution

The first two parts of the series on plot development looked at the Set-Up and the Confrontation.  The last part is the Resolution.  This final section of a story features the final conflict resolution of the plot and subplots.  It is when all the lose ends of the story come together.  Typically it includes the …

Blog Chain: Breaking the Rules

It's Blog Chain time again.  This chain was started by Kate who asked the question: What writing rules/advice - whether it was a matter of cannot or will not - have you broken? OOhhhh, breaking rules.  This really appeals to the rebel in me.  You see, growing up I was a good girl.  A very …