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The glue, the heart, the meat of any good story, I think lies within the theme. Characters, setting, dialogue, symbolism, all the tools at the writer’s hand can help convey the theme or themes of a story. It’s that underlying idea of or about the world you want to share. Read more…
Building off the last Writer Syndrome episode about character archetypes, our latest episode we dive into characterization. Funneling down from the overarching character description like the hero, the mentor, the child and so forth, to a refined, who is this character and how are their behaviors and characteristics portrayed in Read more…
Creating a character from scratch can feel like a daunting task. Who are they? What do they look like? What do they believe? What are their needs/wants/motivations/fears/flaws? So much to consider to create a character with depth and enough life where their decisions within your story are believable. That’s where Read more…
You might be surprised to know that there really aren’t that many story plots out there. If you picked any novel or movie it most likely falls in one of the seven or twelve, depending on who you talk to, story archetypes that exist. Whether it’s overcoming a monster, rags Read more…
It’s all been building toward this, Act III. Where all the setups payoff, characters have overcome their internal/external issues to solve the big problem in front of them, and where they plan live out the rest of their lives in this new world. The gather the team, the execute a Read more…
Act II was/can be a scary act, for me at least. It’s the heaviest, beefiest of the three acts and can either drag a story down, bringing it to a grinding halt, or it can raise the stakes and tension for a sweet payoff in Act III. Act II is Read more…
As I switch gears back into prep for book two, I recently revisited my writing reference crutch, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. There are plenty of books about writing, story structure, and methodologies for turning your idea into a story. Besides Save the Cat!, Stephen King’s On Writing, and Read more…
I’m not having it right now. Not yet at least. Right now, I’m being lazy and procrastinating or finding some other task to do instead of writing. Maybe I’m doing that because I actually don’t know what to write? Shit, do I have writer’s block? No. You can’t have writer’s Read more…
One of the key elements of creating compelling characters is finding their motivation. Whether it be internal, external and/or both (ideally), character motivations are what drive them to make decisions about the obstacles thrown at them. This creates conflict which creates drama which creates an interested reader. Even if they Read more…
So you wrote and launched a book, great! But does anyone know about it? I launched HOST on 08.01.23, it’s crazy to think it’s been out for almost a month already, and I feel like the work is just getting started. Marketing, sales, promotions are key to getting the word Read more…