What is an Adverb? Part 2
Some words can serve as both adjectives and adverbs. Examples: He swung hard with a right hook. Here, hard serves as an adverb which modifies the verb swung. When he fell, his head hit…
writing
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What is an Adverb? Part 1
An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Some examples of adverbs: adjective form – adverb form happy – happily clear – clearly close – closely dear…
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Clichés – Enemy or Friend?
Every time I turn on the television or pick up a new book at the book store, I see yet another cliche or variation on a cliche, and I roll my eyes. “Again?”…
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Overwriting With Too Many Unnecessary and Unneeded Superfluous Words
For those of you who didn’t notice, (and I hope most of you noticed), only one or two of those words were necessary to properly and clearly convey the topic of my discussion….
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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 –…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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What is a Synopsis and How Do I Write One?
At its most fundamental level, a synopsis answers the question: What is this book about? A synopsis should cover – in abbreviated form – all the major points of your book in sequential…
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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…
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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…
