“Who’s doing NaNoWriMo this year?” (A question at our writers’ group meeting.) It’s that time of year again. November and NaNoWriMo loom large. Will you participate? Whether you’re joining in or not, if you’re an author, you worry about setting: How much scene-setting do you ...
fiction writing
Write Fiction Readers Love: 3 Tips To Convey Emotions
At a recent writers’ group meeting, we discussed how to write fiction that readers love and remember. The discussion started when one author said: “Last week I caught up on my reading. I read four (genre) novels. After I finished them, I struggled to remember the characters. And the ...
Writing a Novel: Begin It With A Bullet Or A Sunrise?
When you’re writing a novel, do you begin at the beginning? We discussed our favorite strategies for starting a novel at a recent writers’ group meeting. Most authors in the group said they write chronologically: they began at the beginning and write to the end. Several authors however ...
Writing Fiction: Start With People To Avoid Plot Disasters
In our latest writers’ group meeting, we talked about writing fiction and character creation and development. We’re back to our regular meetings, thank heavens. Sadly, our group’s been decimated, but we’ll build it up again. Start with plot or characters? That’s a topic which never ...
Writing Fiction: Find Great Ideas For Your Next Novel
One of the biggest challenges when you’re writing fiction is finding truly good ideas. We discussed finding great ideas in a recent writers’ group meeting. Several authors maintained that the perfect idea hit them after they’d started writing about a character who intrigued them. Some authors ...
Writing Fiction: Outlining Tips For Pantsers
In our recent writers’ group meeting we discussed writing fiction and the fraught topic of outlining. Those of us who are pantsers wince when we hear the word: “outline”. Pantsers don’t do outlines; we write by the seat of our pants. We feel guilty about that, so we experiment with outlines ...
