Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
Include anticipation in your stories to keep readers turning pages and involved with possible outcomes for your characters.
Verbs power your stories. Use accurate verbs to create the motion and emotion you want your story to have. This article includes tips for choosing verbs, including use of the passive voice.
Continue reading Set Story into Motion—Use Meaningful Verbs »
A reminder to layer on the emotional hits so the reader will feel them. Use knockout lines or zingers when that works for a scene, but don’t be hesitant about pushing, about hitting the emotional button again and again.
Description in fiction paints the story world and characters for readers, gives substance to a world wholly unfamiliar to the readers. Learn some tips for working with description.
Technology is part of a story’s setting. Remember to include technology, especially in contemporary stories, if you want setting and background to feel authentic.
A discussion of where to begin writing, especially when you don’t know where to start. Included a reminder to decide on foundational issues before putting pen to paper.
Characters need motivation to compel them to act when they otherwise wouldn’t. And writers have to supply the right motivation for the story events, the character, the genre, and the setting.
Whichever story event you refer to when you talk about the inciting incident, make something happen in your story. Include a cause that gets the story, and your protagonist, moving.
Expletives—there is, there were, it is, it was, and so forth—can make sentences dull. And sometimes they’re just used too often in our writing. Learn how expletives can work either for or against story.
Tips for using the sense elements to differentiate characters, enhance mood, and make stories feel real.
The reader will focus on what stands out. Turn the reader's attention where you want it to go.
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Copyright © 2010-2018 E. A. Hill Visit Beth at A Novel Edit
Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
