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Monthly Archives: October 2010

On Scene Lists: What Your Story Needs

Tweet We’ve been talking about long synopses and scene lists this week. Yesterday I went into some detail on what scene lists are for. Today I want to tell you how to write one. It shouldn’t be hard, but it’s definitely going to take some time and thought. So let’s get started! Meat on the […]

On Scene Lists: Building a Novel

Tweet This week, your big NaNoWriMo prewriting assignment is to develop a long synopsis, or scene list.  I’ve talked before about writing a plot synopsis (and all its various forms), and tucked in there is a brief description of a scene list: A scene list is primarily useful as a prewriting or editing tool. It […]

What I Learned About Writing This Week…from Disappointing Reads

I’m a quitter. I’ll admit it. I’ve decided that I don’t have time to finish books I’m not enjoying. Over the last month, I have picked up and almost immediately set down again two novels in particular…

On Scene Lists: Complications

Tweet As my sister so kindly pointed out, I’ve fallen a bit behind on the blog posts lately. And that’s after cutting my weekly commitment by half. I still mostly blame schoolwork, but that’s really just my temporary excuse. Give me a week, and I’ll be able to blame NaNoWriMo for a full month. After […]

On Narrative Scenes: Writing a Scene

Tweet This week we’re talking about narrative scenes — the storytelling elements that clarify your characters and progress your plot. How Scenes Work As I said yesterday, every scene in your story must move your story forward. That can consistent of character-building, occasionally, and really only in the first act, but in most genres you […]

On Narrative Scenes: Choosing Your Scenes

Tweet This month we’re reviewing all the parts and processes that go into developing a story. Our goal is to put together a complete prewriting package to do some of the heavy lifting for you when it comes time to write a novel in November. So far, if you’ve been following along, you have Characters, […]

What I Learned about Writing this Week…from Making New Writing Friends

Once upon a time, there was a highly intelligent, gifted young writer who lived in a far away land and didn’t have any writing friends…

On Narrative Scenes: My Best Break-Up

Tweet I’m not at all sure it’s a good idea to tell this story. No one’s ever called me “discerning,” though. So I’m going to tell it anyway. I’ve spent most of my life trying (successfully, for the most part) to win the love of the woman who most loves Gods Tomorrow. That’s a writer’s […]

On the Conflict Resolution Cycle: The CRC Worksheet

Tweet Okay, for a week now I’ve been talking about the Conflict Resolution Cycle worksheet. It’s a questionnaire/assignment I cooked up a couple years back to force a writer through the questions necessary to convert a story idea into an actual narrative. Most of the questions explain themselves, so instead of opening with a big […]

On the Conflict Resolution Cycle: Designing a Narrative

Tweet Earlier this week I told a story. It was one I had to tell, under the circumstances. On the day I launched Gods Tomorrow to the public, you’d better bet I was going to talk about my novel. It works well as an illustration for the writing principles I want to talk about this […]