Lights, camera, action. It’s time. You’ve written your novel almost to the end. You’ve ramped up the tension and excitement, and the fate of the entire world is at stake. The audience is waiting with bated breath for what’s to come. All that remains is to write the final showdown where your heroes vanquish the … Read more
One thing we worry about as writers is being original. Often, the concern comes along with the overwhelming realization that most, if not all ideas have already been done. Ours are hardly the first stories with peasant dragonslayers and worlds with elves. Whatever we want to write about has been touched, tainted, done better or … Read more
Like many writers I’m a huge fan of many things – from novels and superheroes to anime and Doctor Who. But recently, watching a show with my young daughter, I’ve been pulled beyond a threshold I never expected to cross. I started writing fanfiction. It is the best thing to happen to my writing in … Read more
If you’ve been around people interested in the art of storytelling, chances are you’ve heard someone claim that characters need agency. If you’re anything like me you may have a vague impression that it’s about giving the character a reason of their own for doing things. That’s sort of correct. I’ll try and clear things … Read more
Story is complex. It has multiple layers of ingredients working in cohesion to create a believable, enjoyable and emotional experience for the reader. Often our focus as writers is on the more obvious: prose, dialogue, character, setting. But what about the festering, bubbling emotions underneath the surface? The things left unsaid or what is implied? … Read more
This article is by Mareth Griffith. In crafting a protagonist, one major factor to consider is the main character’s relationship to the story’s setting – whether the protagonist is an insider or an outsider. A protagonist’s connection to the culture or world in which the story takes place sets up key assumptions that help determine … Read more
What’s a Novella? A novella sits somewhere between the short story and the novel — too long to be a short, too short to be a novel. You might ask how long it is, and depending on who you ask you’ll get a different answer. If you’re measuring word count, the novella comes in at … Read more
A couple of months back I wrote an article about how I’d decided to take a step back and re-learn the basics of storytelling (here). It’s been working out really well, and today I’m here to share a little of what I’ve learned so far. What am I doing, and why? First of all, a … Read more
This article is by Kyle Malone. Foreshadowing has come to rank as my favourite literary technique. This is not due to the fact that it is the hardest to grasp (far from it), but because when used correctly it remains one of the most powerful. The art of storytelling, of whisking readers into other worlds, … Read more
This article is by S.C. Sharman. When readers pick up your book you want them to have a hard time putting it down. Even if that means staying up all night until they’ve read the whole thing. The way to achieve this is by building suspense. Here are four proven ways to keep the suspense … Read more