You probably already know that motivation is everything in a novel. Nearly everything worth reading flows from a character who wants something and actively goes after it. In writing advice land it’s popular to subdivide a character’s motivations into conscious motivations and unconscious motivations. Meaning, there’s something on the surface that’s motivating the character (saving […]
Writing Advice
Zen and the art of fishing in Animal Crossing
I came a bit late to the Animal Crossing craze. (Don’t worry, this post will get to writing eventually). I finally broke down and got a Nintendo Switch last month, thinking I’d play the Zelda game. But while that game is beautiful and fantastic, one too many skeletons popped out of the ground and attacked […]
Everything you need to know about perspectives
A novel’s perspective is one of the most fundamental building blocks in a writer’s toolkit. It’s also one of the most common mistakes I see writers make. I recently updated all my tips about how to choose a perspective and write it well on a new page: All about perspectives in novels Check it out […]
Third person omniscient vs. limited vs. head jumping
If a writing fairy popped out of an old typewriter and granted me the ability to fix one craft problem in all the unpublished manuscripts across the realm I would probably terrify it by how quickly I’d shout, “PERSPECTIVES! For the love of Melville fix the broken perspectives!!” You probably know there are three main […]
Be very careful with dreams and hallucinations in novels
Writers are often tempted to pen dream sequences and hallucinations. And for good reason! Reading a novel itself feels a bit like a dream, and writers want to take full advantage of the medium, which allows us to get inside a character’s head in an unparalleled way. But you should proceed with the utmost caution. […]
Writing as a series of lenses
Moby-Dick is my favorite novel of all time, and what I love about it the most is that it feels true on so many different levels. The experience of reading it really does feel like the Pequod’s long, insane voyage to the ends of the Earth. It’s a huge novel like the leviathans they’re chasing. […]
