This week! Books! It’s really difficult to concentrate these days and few people I know are as productive as usual. Anne R. Allen has a great post on why it’s so tough to write right now as we deal with our collective grief, and she has some tips on how to keep moving forward. In […]
Shakespeare
How to create a great villain
Bill Sikes. Lady MacBeth. Captain Ahab. Voldemort. The Wormwoods. Sauron. Iago. The best villains in literature send a shiver down our spine and make our blood pressure rise. Why do some villains have such a hold on us while others feel like weak sauce? Here are some tips on how to craft a memorable villain. […]
Who is the Greatest Villain in Fiction?
Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the greatest villain of them all? Iago? Ahab? Fagin? Voldemort? Sauron? Villains are just plain scarier when they only have one name, aren’t they? Who’s your choice?
The Importance of Basic Computer Skills
Shakespeare had to know how to sharpen a quill and dip it in ink. Hemingway had to know how to use a typewriter. You need to know how to use a computer. Computer skills are completely imperative for the modern writer. And I don’t just mean opening up whatever word processing application that comes with […]
Guest Blog Week: Everything You Need to Know About Writing a Novel, in 1000 Words
By: Victoria Mixon PLOT Plots are myriad, but plot structure is simple: hook, development (with backstory interwoven), climax. Shakespeare’s five-act play, Syd Field’s three-act story, Freytag’s triangle (although Freytag called complications climax and climax resolution—causing untold confusion): like a holograph, hook-development-climax works on all levels, from the big picture down through chapters, sequences, scenes, to […]
Character and plot are inseparable
You may have the idea that you somehow have to choose between writing a plot-oriented novel and a character-oriented novel, and that one has to come at the expense of the other. I’m here to tell you why you don’t worry about these categories. It’s a completely false choice. UPDATED 5/30/19 There’s no such thing […]
