Conflict – Who Needs It? You!
If you’re a writer, YOU do. Every story needs a conflict at the center of it. If plot is the fundamental building block of a story, then conflict is the fundamental building block…
Author: Spencer
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Writing a Blurb
Writing a blurb is not easy: Anyone who thinks writing a blurb is easy, has probably never written a good blurb. The blurb I speak of here is the kind that’s found on…
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What is a Blurb? And How to Write One
For the purposes of this blog, a blurb (sometimes referred to as a short summary) is the brief description of a book’s contents found on the book’s back cover, written with the intent…
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How to Write Believable Characters
The most important part of any story is the characters. Indeed, the characters are the story. If you don’t have believable characters, then you don’t have a story – no matter how good…
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Story Pacing – Urgency – Hooking Readers
The First Fifty – Crucial – Pages of Your Book The first fifty pages of your book are crucial for setting the hook in your readers. Something has to happen. Something exciting, or…
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What is the Best Point of View to Use in Fiction?
Benefits and Drawbacks of Each POV As a beginning writer who chose to write my first book in first-person narrative, I discovered the drawbacks of such an approach the hard way. Halfway through…
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World Building – Information Dumps in Your Story
Are You Overwhelming Your Readers? Have you ever run across a prologue like this: (usually in sci-fi books) Captain Briggs took the helm and began shouting orders. “Ensign, optimize the traspositional filtration valves…
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Sentence Fragments – Stylistic Choice?
Should I use sentence fragments in my novel? Is it bad writing or style? Sentence fragments. Who cares? You? Me? Anyone? Depends. Writing nonfiction? Probably wouldn’t. Work, that is. Writing fiction? Could be….
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Rewriting and Revising Before You Edit
How Many Manuscript Drafts Should You Go Through? When working on a book of any kind, if you haven’t gone through a minimum of three drafts, you probably don’t have a finished product….
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How to Write Your Book
What’s the Best Way to Write a Book? There are as many answers to that questions as there are authors. And while no answer is inherently better than another, a few examples should…
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Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part 3
Engage Your Characters in Their Setting When you’re characters interact through dialogue, make them interact as well with their surroundings. There should be a continual interplay of character and setting. Examine your dialogue…
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Fine Tuning Your Manuscript – Part 2
The Three S’s – Scene, Setting, and Senses Stories don’t occur in a bubble. They have to be set in a real and believable place. And what makes a scene or setting, is…
