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Category: Characterization, Plot, & Setting

December 22, 2015

Worldbuilding Without Traditions Feels Fake

December is one month where many different cultural holidays overlap. Even those without strong religious beliefs often have certain activities they associate with the holiday season. That makes it a particularly appropriate time to talk about traditions and worldbuilding. As far as I know, every single culture in existence has traditions that it relies on (they are generally different from culture...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Research & Worldbuilding Comments: 0
December 2, 2015

How Much Characterization Can You Get Out Of 1 Word?

Having a character use this word is instant characterization. Off the top of my head, I can picture 3 entertaining uses: The Attempt To Be PC – Maybe it’s the Latin, but I picture a young, inexperienced person who was raised in the upper echelons. I imagine that he/she is put on the spot in some fancy cocktail party and after stumbling for a polite term, reverts to...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Humor & Wordplay/Quotes, Words, & Phrases Comments: 0
December 1, 2015

Characterization Through Dialogue

If you’re having trouble with characterization, you might want to check the dialogue. Even though real people don’t talk like book characters, dialogue is one of the fastest and most reliable ways to communicate what a character is like and where a character is from without going into a lot of detail. And the most important part of using dialogue for characterization...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/General Thoughts & Updates/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 3
November 30, 2015

The Carte Blanche of a Likable Character

A while back, I was watching the M*A*S*H* series, and I had a little epiphany. It started when I realized that although Hawkeye and Trapper regularly tormented George Burns, the series always framed their actions as humorous and Burns’ actions as mean-spirited and wrong – which is essentially how the audience took it. And most of the time, Hawkeye and Trapper’s...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/General Thoughts & Updates/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 0
November 25, 2015

Ocean’s Eleven & Learning from Other People’s Mistakes

A lot of improving our writing is learning from our own mistakes. But why stop there? Let’s learn from other people’s mistakes. If you want to try this, some of the most revealing pieces to examine are works in progress or works that were re-released. Other than movies of Broadway musicals where the change is apparent over time (such as Rodgers...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/General Thoughts & Updates/Research & Worldbuilding/Theatre & Film Comments: 0
November 19, 2015

6 Methods to Hook Readers

Anyone else learn about hooks in high school? You know, those one-line bits of magic that supposedly made your college application essay more interesting and enthralling to the poor brain-numbed grader? They’re baaack… Joking aside, hooks are in everything – or at least the concept of hooks is. A hook isn’t necessarily a one-liner. It can be an idea, a...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques Comments: 3
November 9, 2015

Plotting A Framework

I’ve been plotting this week (cue maniacal laughter). Of course, that shouldn’t be a surprise. No matter what novel or story a writer is working on, there should be a certain amount of plotting going on at regular intervals: decisions about new characters and what’s going to happen next. Even the most meticulous plotters have to check what they’ve written against...
Categories Characterization, Plot, & Setting/Creative Process/Literary Devices & Writing Techniques/Research & Worldbuilding Comments: 2