Who Said What – Speech Tags
When writing dialogue in fiction, there’s many ways to ascribe speech to your characters. These indicators are called speech tags. The most common way is to use the word, said. “Don’t forget to…
characters
-
-
Unnecessary Death in Fiction
Imagine the headline: America’s Most-Loved Dog – Snoopy, Dead at 87 Beloved Beagle Flattened by Eighteen-Wheeler “I’m devastated,” said Charles ‘Charlie’ Brown, longtime owner of the charismatic, but aloof pooch. “I don’t think…
-
Make Your Readers Beg
Withholding – Making Your Readers Beg Withholding is a subtle art form. Remember, you’re not withholding from your reader, you’re withholding from your protagonist. But when you withhold from your protagonist, your readers…
-
How to Write a Fight Scene That Packs a Punch
Preparation – Writing a fight scene does require a bit of patience. And unless you’re an expert in various forms of combat like sword fighting, you’ll probably need to do some research as…
-
Abs – Overt Expectations in Fiction
ABS (Solutely Not) (Overly) Great Expectations Don’t you love it? You meet a character in fiction who spends his nights drinking and carousing. Then he passes his days lounging by the pool, drinking…
-
Building Suspense and Creating Tension Part 4
Building Suspense and Tension – Part Four Dialogue should, as a rule, always have a purpose and contain at least an element of tension. Avoid using dialogue for small talk or pleasantries –…
-
Building Suspense and Creating Tension Part 3
Building Suspense and Tension – Part Three Reversals – Another time-honored way of building suspense and creating tension is to create radical reversals for your characters – reversals that jar the reader, create…
-
Building Suspense And Creating Tension Part 2
Building Suspense and Tension – Part Two Uncertainty: Building suspense means creating uncertainty in the reader, and compelling them to want to read ahead to see what happens next – while in the…
-
Building Suspense And Creating Tension Part 1
Building Suspense and Tension – Part One The most important thing you can do as a writer of fiction is make the reader want to turn the page. In fact, there is no…
-
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…
-
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…
