Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing
Helping authors achieve their dreams
When I’m editing novels, one of my most common margin notes–particularly at the start of scenes–is “What’s the plan here?” Providing the reader with insight into a character’s plans is an incredibly powerful storytelling technique. Plans build anticipation and suspense. They give the reader a sense of what’s at stake if the character succeeds or […]
Sometimes as writers we don’t really know what’s going to happen next. Even the best outliner may find their characters wandering straight off the map. There may be stretches in a novel when we have to write our way toward figuring out what’s supposed to happen. Letting your characters wander can be very productive! It […]
I’m on record saying that the solution to every problem that ever existed is to keep writing. That doesn’t mean you can solve everything alone. We live in perennially stressful times, and the writing vocation is uniquely challenging. You are not likely to be chased by a pack of wild hyenas in the throes of […]
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 […]
David Lynch’s recent passing inspired me to revisit my favorite of his movies, Mulholland Drive, which I hadn’t seen since I first watched it in a theater in 2001. Of course it holds up. Of course it’s heads and shoulders above nearly anything else made this century. What struck me watching it this time was […]
Here’s a near-ironclad maxim that’s worth taping above your laptop: You’re a more confusing writer than you think you are. You know exactly what your words mean. You can visualize every scene you write in vivid detail no matter how scant your physical description may be. Writers inevitably project details onto the page that aren’t […]
Helping authors achieve their dreams
