How Fiction Writers Can Manipulate Time
Time is a fluid thing in our lives. It’s all about perception. That’s why it’s “timey-wimey,” as Dr. Who likes to say.Ah, time. That nebulous, illusory, slippery thing. Just what is time, anyway? As...
View ArticleHow Fiction Writers Can “Speed Up” Time
Last post I discussed ways fiction writers can manipulate time. Meaning, give the illusion that, for the POV character (and for the reader), time seems to be speeding up or dragging. Writers can...
View ArticleHow Fiction Writers Can Create “Skewed Time”
Time sometimes seems choppy, erratic, confusing. It may feel as if it’s going backwards or in circles. It all depends on perception. Making time feel wonky is a skill, but there are ways to create...
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The Power of Perspective in Creating Characters
Post by Marie Barry. As writers, we are constantly thinking about the lens through which our characters view the world. We’re often told to “walk in someone else’s shoes” or to “climb into his skin and...
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5 Lessons I Learned from My 30-Day Writing Challenge
Guest post by Grace Ekause. Embarking on a 30-day writing challenge seemed exciting at first—it was a chance to improve my creativity, build a writing habit, and watch my skills grow into something...
View ArticleHow to Master the Passage of Time in Fiction
We’re continuing our look at manipulating time in fiction. Be sure to read the other posts on the topic, beginning with this one. Scene structure is an essential concept writers must grasp in order to...
View ArticleContinuity in the Passage of Time
We’ve been going over the element of time in many recent posts (start with this one). Time is a matter of perception, and fiction writers need to learn skills to help them become adept in conveying the...
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The Best Way to “Show, Don’t Tell”–Scene Segmenting
One of the key maxims in fiction writing is “Show, don’t tell.” But just telling a writer to “show” is vague. How do you transfer the clearly enacted scene playing in your mind to the page in a way...
View ArticleCinematic Technique for Fiction Writers
Writing fiction these days is all about using cinematic style. What that means is rather than explain and summarize the action in a scene, writers play out the action “moment by moment” by “shooting”...
View ArticleBuilding Your Scenes with Beats
If you’re writing fiction, and particularly novels or novellas, you need to master scene structure. There is a whole lot to this! Whether you “pants” or plot your scenes, to make them powerfully...
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Show, Don’t Tell, by Scene Segmenting
Writing fiction these days is all about “show, don’t tell.” But, as I often say, that admonition is vague. Yes, we want to “show” our scenes playing out as if on a movie screen. But what are the...
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Do You Really Have to Use a 3-Act Structure in Fiction?
Over the decades, I’ve heard many writers and writing coaches talk about the 3-Act Structure as if it’s a given. Meaning, of course your novel should have three acts. Doesn’t every story? Thankfully,...
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The Gravity of a Single Word: Why Writers Must Choose with Care
Guest post by Evan Swensen. It happened in a lecture hall so quiet that even the sound of paper turning felt like an interruption. The year was 2001. The place: a modest university classroom in...
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