It’s Free Tip Sunday!
You already know I’ve written an ebook called “101 Slightly Unpredictable Tips for Novelists and Screenwriters.” And you know it’s for sale right here, too. This is the fifth of those tips that I’ve posted. My hope is that you’ll like what you see, get your whistle wetted, and want to see the other 96 […]
Getting It Down on Paper: The Pantsers-Piano Analogy
I get hate mail. I really do. It’s from people who don’t accept – who don’t even want to hear about it – that there are standards and principles and rules when it comes to writing publishable fiction. That there is such as a thing as story architecture, which is the sum of structure and […]
Is There Seventh Core Competency?
In the creation and evangelizing of my story development model, the Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling, I like to tell people that there is nothing in the realm of writing fiction that doesn’t fall into one of these six buckets. Why? First of all, because it’s true. But also, when you deal in such […]
A Deeper Look at Character
I know this guy. Everybody in our circle of friends knows him. They go back years (not me, I’m the newbie in the group, which makes me analogous to the reader of a story… I just sit back and watch the pages unfold). Everybody, in context to this group dynamic, seems to like him. But […]
Next Best Analogy – Put Your Banker Hat On
‘Tis the season to be analogous, it seems. At least here on Storyfix. Two days ago I offered up a way to think about your story that may help bring it to a more fulfilled life – try thinking about it as a person, a human being, with all the complexities and contradictions and inherent […]
Your Story – An Analogy That Can Get You Published
Someone recently told me that the posts here on Storyfix – not to mention my writing workshops – are very much a 101 proposition. Entry level. It’s boot camp, spring training, freshman creative writing. So be it. That’s not remotely a bad thing. I’d say that well over 99% of the writers out there, including […]
How To Reboot Your Novel
In my last post I gave notice that the next Storyfix entry would be about defining story architecture. So here we are. Sort of. Why? Because a few readers have expressed confusion – not so much with the comparison between architecture and structure, but with how to wrap one’s head around the term architecture in […]
The Writing Process: My Dance With the Pants
Just finishing up a new novel. One that I began by pantsing, instead of planning. That’s right… me, the Rush Limbaugh of story planning. Loud, obnoxious, and blinded by a bias that until recently prevented me from seeing the writing process for what it is. This is the story of how that happened, how it […]
Getting Published: Is Your Story Idea Strong Enough?
The initial idea for a story usually consists of one of two elements: a concept, or a character. Sometimes it’s a theme, but that makes you the exception (and a lucky one, because theme often gets the least developmental treatment). If you try to write your story with one and not the other, and if that one […]
Should You Be Obsessed With Getting Published?
I love talking to writers about writing. Sometimes I get downright evangelistic about it. Yeah, that’s me, delivering a keynote at the recent Portland Creative Conference in front of about 500 or so folks who didn’t expect to see a fiction writer pounding the podium like a starry-eyed politician stumping for votes. I work myself […]