by Josiah DeGraaf | May 17, 2019 | Articles |
A couple weeks ago, I saw the teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. One shot captured me instantly: Rey, Finn, and Poe overlooking the shattered remains of (presumably) the second Death Star. Those few seconds made me more excited for the trilogy’s...
by Daeus Lamb | Mar 11, 2019 | Articles |
When I cracked open Out of the Silent Planet, I gobbled up page after page. Did the plot thrill me? Was I a C. S. Lewis fanatic? It was a marvelous book on many fronts, but the aspect that stuck with me wasn’t the plot, the characters, or the themes. I remember...
by Gabrielle Pollack | Jan 21, 2019 | Articles |
Sometimes characters come to us in pieces. A whisper of dialogue, a murmur of a dream, or even a feeling can ignite a glimmer of inspiration that demands to become a person. But a character is more than a rushed scribble inside our notebooks. Although voice is one of...
by Brandon Miller | Sep 24, 2018 | Articles |
If your story features more than one character, it probably contains dialogue. Unfortunately, dialogue can be challenging to write, because it needs to sound natural or it will fall flat. As if that isn’t bad news enough, cultivating an ear for dialogue is not an...
by Gabrielle Pollack | Sep 17, 2018 | Articles |
“Be specific,” they say. “It will help your story,” they say. This is good advice, but it’s not always true. “Be specific” does not mean “be specific with every word you write.” The wrong kind of details won’t help, especially in action sequences....
by Gabrielle Pollack | Aug 27, 2018 | Articles |
A unique setting isn’t about how you describe it, but about how a character perceives it. Everything in a story revolves around characters, including setting. Descriptions are not foreign elements that must be incorporated solely because characters need a place...
by Brandon Miller | Aug 20, 2018 | Articles |
You’ve finished the first draft of your novel. What’s next? At some point you’ll need to show your manuscript to a beta reader or two. Seeking an outside opinion is an invaluable and inescapable step in your writing process. Before you send your novel off for critical...
by Mariposa Aristeo | Jul 30, 2018 | Articles |
Writers tend to treat the fine points of writing like chemicals in a science lab. Some jumble style and grammar in an intellectual test tube, uncertain which combination will produce the desired effect. Others avoid the subject because they’re worried it might...
