Story Structure Series: #1 — Introducing the Four Parts of Story

 Storyfix is proud to bring you a 10-part tutorial on the fundamentals of story structure.  Today’s post is #1 in that series. Introducing the Four Parts of Story Some writers like things in nice little boxes.  Others, not so much.  Either way, you can look at your story like a box, of sorts.  You toss in all kinds of […]

Story Structure — Just Possibly the Holy Grail of Storytelling

Storyfix is proud to introduce an 11-part series on the fundamentals of story structure. Following this Introduction, each day will bring a new post in the series.  They’ll be filed in a separate category under Pages for future reference. Introduction One question pops up at nearly every writing workshop I teach: how do I know […]

The Thing About Writing Sex Scenes

Apologies to my dyslexically-inclined readers — or simply those who see what they want to see — who think this post is actually Writing Sex Scenes About the Thing.  Didn’t mean to get your hopes up.  Stay tuned, though, because this post dwells on something much more forbidden than sex itself, and for those avoiding to have sex […]

What You Need to Know about Landing An Agent

As a writer who hasn’t had a new novel out in a few years, people tend to ask me what I’ve been up to lately.  As if they assume there’s nothing happening here under the bus.  I tell them about Storyfix, and they say, “oh, so you’re writing a blog.  But are you working on anything?” […]

Tip #34: Stuck? Write Something Terrible.

Here’s another preview from my new eBook, available any day now.  Really. So you’re stuck.  Writer’s block.  Again.  You have no new ideas, no clue where to go next with your project, not a single notion how to fix the deep dark hole you’ve written yourself into.  You have two choices: do nothing, or do something. […]

What Kind of Storyteller Are You, Anyhow?

See my guest blog today on Copyblogger.com, the Big Kahuna of all freelance writing sites.   Check it out HERE. If you’ve just come from there, welcome!  Kick around a while, there’s lots to experience. If you like what you see, please SUBSCRIBE.  Hey, it’s FREE! Enter your email address: Follow StoryFix And now for today’s […]

3 Not-So-Secret Yet Spectacularly Effective Ways to Blow Readers Away

We’ve all heard – and I like to quote this one – that there’s nothing new under the writing sun.  I’ve also come to know that if you rename something and view it from a new context it becomes startlingly fresh and powerful. Such is the case with these three little magic pills of storytelling.  […]

And the Nominee for Best Director in a Novel is…

Say what? Last night I was watching some tube (my way to chill, wife by my side, ice cream bar in hand… I should be reading, I know) and I caught back-to-back season premieres on TNT, both with similar set-ups (undercover good guys scamming despicable bad guys).  One sucked, the other didn’t. It got me […]

The Ugly Truth About Writer’s Block and the Beautiful Way to Kick It

Writer’s Block is like rejection — its part of the deal if you write seriously.  It reminds me of the blush of new love — in the beginning there’s excitement, the world is all adrenalin and tongue hockey, you can’t focus or sleep… and then reality slaps you upside the head like a mother-in-law who’s […]

45 Questions Your Story Will Always Force You to Answer

But first… Do you Blog? See my guest post today on www.bloggingtips.com And if you’ve just arrived from there… welcome to Storyfix! Inherent to the process of writing a story is answering a certain set of critical questions.  Many are intuitive – like, whodunit?… or, will they or won’t they? – but unless you address […]