Guest Post by D K ELLIOTT The characters in your novel are the essence of your story, and you want your reader, your customer, to develop an emotional involvement with the characters. You create involvement of the reader when you bring him into the scenes as a participant in the action. This requires that you avoid… Read More Avoid Filtering and Improve Your Writing
Dialogue tags are words which refer dialogue to a specific character. “Said” and “asked” are two common examples of dialogue tags. “I won’t help her!” said Christina. Dialogue tags are an important aspect of writing. When scenes have several characters, they help determine which character is speaking. Novice writers use dialogue tags with adverbs to… Read More Dialogue Tags and How to Use Them
There are 3 parts to a scene and 3 parts to a sequel before you venture back into a new scene and begin with a new goal. This is the emotional progression of a scene and sequel that every delightful story should follow. Scene: Goal: Every scene should seek out the character’s goal. Identifying what your… Read More The Emotional Progression of Scene and Sequel
There are five types of writing; narrative, descriptive, expository, persuasive, and creative. These four writing types can overlap each other, and each one has a different purpose. Narrative Writing: This writing recounts personal experiences as a story and always includes characters, a setting, and a plot. An example would be a short story, a novel,… Read More 5 Types of Writing
Every writer I’ve met has a mentor they either follow or chat with often. The blogs and sites I read keep me in the loop on what editors like and don’t like. They also keep me informed on what is selling and how readers react to what authors are writing. I guess you could say,… Read More Writing Chapter One
Comparisons in a story help create a visual image for readers. If you choose the right comparison, the reader will have an emotional connection with the character while they read. The purpose of this master list is to help you find the right color or pattern to use in your story. This list is an… Read More Colors and Pattern Master List
It’s important to understand your character. The more you understand your character, the easier it will be to write the story. I have listed a few questions to ask about your character. If you’re using Scrivener, you can add this to your character folder and save it in one of your templates. Each character needs… Read More Character’s Fears
Good characteristics can be interchanged with character flaws. They help build a character, strengthen the story, create conflict, and move the story along. There will be clickable links with each of these good character traits, and this is a continuing list. Please bookmark this list on Pinterest or on your bookmark bar for future reference.… Read More Good Character Traits Master List
Character flaws give the character something to overcome on his way to meet his goal. Character flaws make a character interesting. They are the reason villains are sometimes more interesting than the heroes, and why our heroes have real life struggles. The characters always need a flaw, maybe two or three flaws, a moral weakness,… Read More Character Flaws Master List
R.D. Hayes 