This is the post about different types of climaxes that I mentioned last week. It’s closely related to reverse planning—or any kind of story planning, really—because how you plan or outline a story (if you work that way) depends a lot on what kind of climax you
Read more →This is Part II of me trying to answer LM’s query, specifically the part about backward planning—that is, starting with a climax scene and working out the plot backwards from that. I had a whole other post written, then realized that I had gotten distracted talking about
Read more →LM requested a post on “speeding up a novel planning process re: structure, etc.” This one is probably going to be another series, because I have a lot to chew on here, including backwards planning and gardening/explorer planning vs. the more commonly advised three-act-structure planning. First off,
Read more →Deep Lurker’s request was second, for a post “on ways to depict events spread over several months.” If someone has been writing stories that take place over a couple of days or weeks, being faced with a story that takes place over a year or more can
Read more →Well, based on the comments in last week’s Open Mic, it looks like I’m going to be talking about structure and endings for a while. Rowan M got in first, with a request for a post about length—specifically, how you tell how long a story will be
Read more →OK, day after Halloween, but it’s still closer to it than it’s been before. Talk among yourselves, ask questions for me to blather on about next week, whatever you like. I’m back from the current round of New Book Publicity and head down in trying to get
Read more →National Novel Writing Month (most commonly known as NaNoWriMo) starts next week. For those unfamiliar with the idea, it started as a straightforward challenge: During the month of November, complete 50,000 words of a novel. In the past 24 years, it’s grown into a huge community of
Read more →The “Publishing Options” series concluded with the third post I did last week, but I wanted to also talk a bit about some of the other business decisions writers have to make. Specifically, about business plans. The vast majority of writers don’t have even an informal business
Read more →This is Part 3 of a three-part series on things to consider when deciding how to publish one’s novel. All parts come with a warning: I have next to no personal experience with any form of publishing besides the traditional sort. So read the comments on the
Read more →This is the second part of a three-part series on things to consider when deciding how to publish one’s novel. All parts come with a warning: I have next to no personal experience with any form of publishing besides the traditional sort. So read the comments; there
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