Historical Post by Gail Gaymer Martin Build a 3-D Hero Using Core Personalities – Part 1 Today I will talk about using Core Personalities to help create a novel’s hero or main male character. This information can also be used for females, but since most popular authors are females, especially those who write romance which is the largest selling genre, we need to put our feet into a man’s shoes. Whether you write suspense, romance, or adventure, any genre needs 3-D characters. Author Mark Mynheir presented a workshop once on characterization and suggested the use of the Myers Briggs personality…
Category: Writing craft
This is our archive pageEditing Tip #58
Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about tips for writers based on the manuscripts I edit.
Where to Begin the Story
Hello from Crystal Bowman! This blog post is for those who want to write fiction for children, and even for those who don’t because the more you know, the more you grow. Most of my books are for the children’s devotional or Bible storybook market. However, I have written several fiction picture books as well as few dozen I Can Read! books, so I want to share something I learned many years ago in my novice years of writing. The mistake many writers make (and I used to be one of them) is to write an explanatory introduction to “set…
Save Your Darlings
by Judith Couchman Might we in our rush to kill all our darlings risk beheading our only valuable bits of expression or insight?—John Crowley You write like crazy. Brilliant ideas spill from nowhere. Original word combinations flow. Then your editor says, “This passage doesn’t fit. We need to cut it.” The editor deletes paragraphs of your stellar work. You feel like you witnessed a murder. Traditionally, writers call these cherished but unusable passages and pages their “darlings.” Authors around the world, from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to Stephen King, have advised writers to kill those darlings: the gorgeous words, sentences, and…
Editing Tips #57
Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about tips for writers based on the manuscripts I edit.
Conflict: For every action, there is a reaction: Basic screenplay writing excerpted from HOW TO SUCCEED IN HOLLYWOOD (WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL) Part X
In every premise, it is conflict that drives the communication forward. To prove your premise you must disprove the negation of your premise. The disproving of the negation of your premise is what actually propels your communication. If there is no negation and no conflict possible in your premise, then your communication will be stillborn, with no direction or goal. Many Christian movies fail from a lack of conflict. They should keep in mind that the world is caught in a spiritual battle; thus, conflict is both necessary and inevitable. Drama means, “to do” or “to perform.” In performance, for…
Not All Conflicts Sustain A Novel by Gail Gaymer Martin
Good morning at Christian Author Network from Gail Gaymer Martin. Last month I provide information about Conflicts That Lifts the Bar, but this month, we’ll talk about conflicts again but the topic is: Not All Conflicts Sustain A Novel. I hope you find this information useful. Not All Conflicts Sustain An Entire Novel Since I’ve taught writing fiction for years and wrote the Writers Digest book, Writing The Christian Romance, I have received questions from writers about many elements and techniques of writing that they struggle with. Below is one of the questions and my response. Question: This question is about…
Editing Tips #56
Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about tips for writers based on the manuscripts I edit.
Paginate Please!
Hello from Crystal Bowman. I am happy to tell you that I am spending the summer in Michigan rather than my home in Florida. I have three grandhildren in Michigan, so besides the beautiful weather, those are three great reasons to be here! I have been writing for children for over 25 years and also have an editing service for children’s writers who are trying to get their books published. When I review proposals, I often see a good proposal with the manuscript tacked on at the end. What I often don’t see is a paginated manuscript.
Analyzing the Premise: Basic screenplay writing excerpted from HOW TO SUCCEED IN HOLLYWOOD (WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL) Part IX
In every story, the premise can be found by analyzing the story. In the Star Wars trilogy, the evil empire is taking over the universe. A young man who is full of goodness, perseverance, and integrity is forced to fight the empire. He wins. “Good triumphs over evil” is clearly the premise. Every film or television program with that clear–cut premise, “Good triumphs over evil,” tells a different story by proving that premise in a different way. However, it is the process of proving the premise that satisfies the expectations of the audience. Every parable Jesus told through the Bible…
