Simile, Metaphor, and Symbol: Figurative Language Bootcamp 1―#AuthorToolboxBlogHop

This post is part of October's #AuthorToolboxBlogHop event. Every month, save November and December, we post tips for writers on our respective blogs. Check out other great posts or join the hop yourself here! Figurative language: all those saying-something-we-don't-means, the hyperbole and understatement, bread and butter of the writer, or maybe just the cherry on...

A Plotter Pantsing: what I’ve learned, and what I’m still trying to figure out

In Twitter's #WritingCommunity, the discussion of plotting and pantsing our stories is a common thread. Plotting, the careful outlining of a story before writing, and pantsing, the seat-of-our-pants, unplanned, accepting-what-comes creation of a story, each draws a crowd of strong adherents. Out foraging for mushrooms this week, we came across this beautiful chanterelle, late for...

Why fiction, and why stories?―#AuthorToolboxBlogHop

This post is part of the monthly #AuthorToolboxBlogHop. Read more great posts about writing here! There must have been moments even that afternoon when Daisy tumbled short of his dreams--not through her own fault but because of the colossal vitality of his illusion. The Great Gatsby, Chapter 5 I'm teaching The Great Gatsby this term,...

Dialogue #2: How People Really Speak

This post is part 2 of a series on dialogue. Click here to read the first post in the series about the three core forms of dialogue. This week's post on Words Like Trees pushes forward into the world of dialogue. We'll look at a concern that often arises with this fickle structure: is the...

Choose the Right Point of View for Your Story: Beyond the Basics

First, third, omniscient, limited—point of view (POV) is a global decision we make in every writing project. Like our choice of present or past tense, selecting the right point of view for a story has a powerful impact on the final effect, and it’s worth considering different options before jumping to one choice. Many of...

Conflict a copout?

I've been working on a short story recently. Unlike most of what I've been writing the last few years, it's solid realism. I didn't expect this to make it a particular challenge for me, but as I have been slogging my way through outlines, a first draft of one-and-a-quarter scenes, doubt has besieged me of...

Mystery drives good storytelling, not conflict.

For some time I've been curious about the idea so prevalent in modern Western literature that a central conflict is indispensable to effective storytelling. In my own writing, sure there's conflict, and when I read, clearly it abounds. But is conflict really the core of it? Is conflict really what's making the story engaging? The...