The simplest approach to writing a story is to say that the now of the narrator is the now the writer is in – the today they inhabit. And, of course, being to do with time, this immediately becomes extremely complicated. Novelists feel most powerfully, and sometimes damagingly, the effects of making now the day […]
You’re writing something – anything. Who is doing the reading or listening? I’m asking you. Your answer to this may be offhand – Well, whoever happens to pick up or download my story. But even this seemingly simple answer has consequences. In addressing an extremely generalised audience, you will still make guesses about what they […]
Last time I suggested that, in order to write with a convincing, consistent, compelling voice, you needed to be able to answer to these five questions – Who is doing the telling? Who is doing the reading or listening? When is now? When is then? What has happened in between then and now? We’re going […]
I realise there may have been a little confusion, at your end, about why I’m going into point of view and time in such detail. Can’t he get onto something else? Like, how to make my sentences better. (I will. Soon.) But sentences aren’t just abstractly ‘better’. They are either appropriate or inappropriate. They either […]
Thanks for coming back. I hope you are well. We’re going to continue our exploration of Point of View and Time. This is because I believe, if you’re a writer and you’re in the shit, this is likely to be the main reason. I’d like you do start off today by doing an exercise. I […]
We ended last time with rather abrupt this statement – The most basic problem with the novels that most writers write (and fail to get published) will be something to do with – POINT OF VIEW AND TIME AND HOW THEY DO OR DON’T FIT TOGETHER We’ve already seen some examples of this with our […]
What are some of the differences between first and third person narrators? One main one needs to be highlighted now. A third person narrator is far more likely to be leisured. In fact, a third person narrator (‘Paris looked beautiful that day, spread out glittering greyly toward a horizon of haze…’) can be pretty near […]
Welcome back. (A small aside – I can see the figures for each page of this blog. Most people don’t make it this far. Well done for keeping going. You’ve already proved something. Keeping going is the main virtue.) In this Lesson we’re going to look at suspense and how to create it. This isn’t […]
PLACES Welcome back. I hope you’ve been keeping well. We have already looked at written-about places in several ways. We know that a story happens because a person or thing is in the wrong place. (A story takes place.) And we’ve built an entire haunted house up, out of a flat white space, as […]
Welcome back. I have already given you my definition of a story – A story is about someone dealing with something that isn’t where it should be. And you have begun writing the nothing draft of a story. You have two characters who have found something. You have another character (the one in disguise) who […]
