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 […]
Dialogue. Does it give you the fear? It gives a lot of writers the fear. It’s something many writers – even fairly experienced ones – either avoid or rush. For one thing, it can be hard to see how to rewrite dialogue. If a character has something to say, don’t they just blurt it out? […]
Very often, people start writing stories but stop after a page or two. There’s nothing wrong with that if what’s been told is a complete story. There are types of short story that are very short. You can find them online as ‘flash fiction’. The Amy Hempel story, ‘Housewife‘, is just one sentence long. But […]
Welcome back. A story needs four things, and I’m going to tell you what they are. But Let’s be clear – I’m going to be making some strong statements about how stories work and what they they need. Yes, there are exceptions. There are always exceptions. I know this. And you can spend your time […]
