Journalism into Fiction – How Did Hemingway Do It?

August 19, 2010

Fiction is truly another country. Take some time and care to learn its ways.

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Character Name and Gender, Please

August 12, 2010

Character name and gender can easily be overlooked when you’re launching a novel or story. But reader attention is too fragile to risk even the slightest distraction, so take care of the little things. Like this…

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Don’t Make This Dialogue Mistake

August 2, 2010

I screened Clint Eastwood’s Grand Torino the other day, and though I enjoyed it, I had to cringe when I heard a certain dialogue exchange between Walt (Eastwood), a Korean War Vet, and his young Vietnamese neighbor, Thao. Thao: “How many?” Walt: “How many what?” Thao: “How many men did you kill?” This could be [...]

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Fiction Writers, Don’t Tell What You Just Showed

July 23, 2010

Fiction writers often do too much. In most cases, if you showed it… it’s done. Resist the temptation to “explain the punchline” with a needless “village explainer” summary of what the reader just saw.

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How Do You Create Your Characters? Final Result

July 20, 2010

How do you create your characters?

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The Powerful Narrative is Back

July 16, 2010

The Powerful Narrative looks at how story elements shape and power both fiction and creative nonfiction. We’ll examine story structures and methods of narrative storytelling. Narrative is the driving wheel of both, so we’ll zero in on how it works in each––emphasizing similarities and differences.

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Desperado Self Motivation for Novelists

July 15, 2010

I am a desperado. I go to war every day. Self-motivation is my battleground, and many days I limp off it, bloody and ready to die. Oh, I have my excuses: start with personal management skills so bizarre they could probably not be charted. Hands down, I am the world’s worst boss–of myself or or [...]

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Writing the Big Dramatic Moment? Show Me

July 12, 2010

Writing those big dramatic moments is perhaps the greatest challenge any fiction writer will face.

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Improv for Fiction Writers: The Game of the Scene

June 30, 2010

Fiction writers often take forever to write and revise a scene. Weeks, months, years later, they can still rewrite. Improvisors, by contrast, must build a scene instantly, by interacting in real time with other players. When it’s over it’s over. There’s no rewrite. Could there possibly be two such different ways of reaching similar ends? [...]

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Improv Skills Can Make You a Better Fiction Writer

June 30, 2010

Novelists and short fiction writers can learn new skills from plunging into the discipline of longform improv.

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