Tag: Writing Advice
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Saggy Middle Syndrome: Symptoms and Cures for Pantsers and Plotters
Have you ever been immediately drawn into a book, only to start to get bored about halfway through? Maybe you had no idea where the book was going, and it felt like the characters were meandering about waiting for the plot to find them. Or maybe you knew exactly where the book was going, and…
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Summoning Images and Evoking Emotion in Descriptive Writing
Have you ever struggled with writing description for a scene? Setting is a vital pillar of storytelling, and everyone wants to have at least an idea of what the key characters look like. But sometimes the act of describing something leaves the reader staring blankly at the screen, or repeatedly slamming their forehead into the…
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Four Methods for Overcoming Writer’s Block
So you are suffering from the malady of writer’s block. The gods must favor you to inflict you with such an illness, to try to turn you from the path of being a writer. Why, you ask? Surely, if you’ve made it this far, then you know: Being a writer is a cursed existence. To…
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Review: Battle Tactics in Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings
If you’ve read my previous article on battlefield tactics, you’ve probably realized by now that I just can’t leave the topic alone. So here’s another article on battlefield tactics – but this time I want to talk about tactics done right. I first read Brandon Sanderson’s Way of Kings last summer (along with the other…
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Reader is Always Right: 3 Questions to Ask Your Beta Readers to Make Your Writing Better
Now you might be confused when you read this title and think: Isn’t that the opposite of what you said in an article last month? Why yes, yes it is. That article was about how to approach worldbuilding, as well as telling your own story. The long and the short of it: You are the…
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Punctuation in Dialogue Tags: 4 Guidelines for Correct Punctuation in Dialogue
Full disclosure: I’m a nitpicker. Or, in a more flattering light, you could say I’ve got an eye for detail. This was only encouraged during my college days (farewell oh my college days of five weeks ago) as a writing center tutor, and also being in a major that highly emphasized technical writing. I mean,…
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How to Write Compelling Battlefield Tactics: 3 Things to Consider Before Your Characters Grab Their Swords
You know how you have a couple topics that you’ll pick apart when you see other writers writing them wrong? Me. This topic. I’ve seen too many writers consider battle just to be a huge clash between opposing forces and not consider even the tiniest little bit battlefield tactics and strategy. Now, I’m not a…
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Fulfilling Promises: 3 Tips to Make the Reader Come Back for More
The last time I talked about plot, I discussed making promises – this time, I’m going to go over the different ways you want to fulfill those promises. As a reminder, a promise is when a writer tells the reader, implicitly or explicitly, what to expect. If a child knows their mother is bringing them…
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Desire: The Heart of Writing Compelling Characters
May 21, 2022 Desire is at the heart of any action humans take. We want so we act so as to achieve that want. I’m hungry. I want to impress her. I want to be a good human being. Okay, so I might be exaggerating a bit when I say any action, and I’m certainly…
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Author is Always Right: Own Your Story’s Worldbuilding
May 19, 2022 Look around. Have you ever noticed how much of a crazily interconnected world we live in? We live in a world where, if you over fish, then the orcas eat the sea otters. Without the sea otters, the sea urchins multiply. The sea urchins eat the kelp forests. And as the kelp…